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SOME NOTES ABOUT THE GREEN MAN and the Jack-in-the-Green The thing to remember about the Green Man is that he was seemingly Pagan at the start, and for a growing number of people is Pagan now. However, for centuries he was a purely Christian symbol of (apparently) the dangers of allowing raw nature to take over, hence the agonised expression on many green men. He is not, therefore, a Pagan God slipped into church, but an invention put there deliberately there by the clergy as a teaching icon. He is not the same as the Jack-in-the-Green, the man within a frame of leaves, who accompanies some morris sides. Jack developed from the milkmaid's May-day headdresses in the eighteenth century. These were frames of leaves with tin trays on, which they wore on their heads. Gradually the frames of leaves got bigger and the trays disappeared, and so the Jack-in-the-Green emerged, to get confused with the Green Man in many people's minds. Roy Judge has written the definitive book on the Jack-in-the-Green, which shows the development very clearly in contemporary illustrations. Both types of foliate character have been carefully studied and shown to be separate developments, which will not stop people confusing them today. In a sense they have both taken on new roles in recent years - the woodland God, the spirit of nature. It's part of their development and changing symbolism. With thanks to: Katy Jordan at the University of Bath