Re: Green Men

["rob" <rob@eteast.com>]

you wrote:
Here's what I've read:

Supposedly, they were Scottish tree spirits who wore cloaks of leaves,
inhabited trees, and often roamed the forest. If they occupied an oak, they
stole the mind of any man who slept under the branches. If a man with a saw
or axe walked by, they would hit him in the head with a well-aimed limb,
knocking him unconscious. THEN, the roots would drag the body underground
where nutrients from decomposition could be absorbed.

I think:
    I'm not versed on the green man mythology but I am absolutely struck by
the resemblence to Tolkien's Old Man Willow whom the Hobbits encounter in
the Old Forest. Merry and Pippen are trapped inside the tree after their
minds are put to sleep by the singing of the willow. They were eventually
saved by Tom Bombadil.

    and then you wrote:

There were also referrences to "woses" and "leshies." Anybody know exactly
what these were and what they were supposed to look like? I think the
"leshies" were Scandinavian tree divinities.

    Woses appear in LOTR as "The wild men of the woods...remnants of an
older time they be, living few and secretly, wild and wary as the
beasts...and they are woodcrafty beyond compare." LOTR Bk. 5, pg 128-129
They led the Rohirrim through the Druadan Forest so they could arrive at
Gondor at the rising of the sun - in time to defeat the storm.

    Later there are Tree-people, but they must be spirits because of their
longevity - I refer to the Ents.

    The reason that I intrude with this is that I am beginning to look at
Tolkien slightly differently after 30 years of study. He was a philologist
by trade, a professor and master of old English, celtic languages, and an
Atlantis afficianado. His translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight for
the Oxford U Press was a standard across academia since it's appearance half
a century ago. He hung out with C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams and as a
philologist, was a mythology buff.

    Sure, others have used celtic imagery - but prof T uses it deliberately
and consistantly - and he seems to have remained true to certain basic
concepts - matters that other further mythologize by poetic license.

   you said it:

I know, weird subject matter, but it's for a writing exercise.

Johnnye St. Clair-Gerhardt
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