May Day special: Old Man of the Forest
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Our eighteenth Spring Vignettes piece celebrates May Day, on May 1st.
Before you read what the piece was intended to portray, share what it portrays to _you_. I’m just the artist; you’re the beholder.
Leave a comment.
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The 1st of May is celebrated across Europe as a special turning-point in the greening of the earth. Some traditions consider it the beginning of summer. Rich May Day traditions exist from west to east.
It is widely considered an ideal time for protective magic, love magic, and other sorts of petty magic and divination. It is said in Romania that one should wash one’s face with dew on May Day morning to preserve health and beauty.
May Eve, the night before May Day, is itself often celebrated with festivities and rituals; known as Walpurgisnacht in Germany, and coinciding with Beltane in the Gaelic countries. Bonfires are often lit on May Eve to ward away evils and misfortunes.
In the Germanic-speaking countries (such as England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia), the "maypole" (in German, "Maibaum"; in Dutch, "meiboom") is a fixture of May Day celebrations; a tall wooden pole or freshly-cut sapling, festively decorated, and erected in a public place to be danced around.
In some areas there is a tradition of competing with other towns to erect the tallest maypole. In Bavaria, towns try to steal each other's maypoles, which I think is very excellent.
Maypoles vary in design and construction. I've noticed that Scandinavian ones tend to be adorned with cross-beams and hanging rings, whereas German ones are often encircled by concentric rings; and maypoles hung with long trailing ribbons seem to be an English and Anglo-American characteristic. In Scandinavia it seems to be popular to wrap them in ivy, while in the mainland they often have barber-pole stripes.
I gave my maypole a mixture of characteristics, just to keep things ambiguous. I gave it a concentric ring, colorful trailing ribbons, and some tufty greenery on top; so there's no telling where the scene takes place.
I find it likely that the maypole is a continuation of the tree-worship practiced by various Germanic pagans, who are known to have venerated many sacred trees and poles as effigies of a great cosmic tree that unites the universe.
The Yggdrasil, just such a cosmic tree, is described in the Norse Eddas. Historians tell of how King Charlemagne, after reconquering the rebelling Saxons, had their sacred tree or pillar, the Irminsul, cut down, and forced them to become Christians. A sacred tree near Hesse called Donar's Oak was supposedly a center of worship for pagans in Germany until it was felled by St. Boniface and his followers. The great temple at Uppsala, Sweden, apparently one of the most holy sites for pagans in Scandinavia, was described as standing next to a great sacred tree of an unknown kind. Sacred trees and pillars are mentioned in quite early Roman accounts about Germanic tribes.
The ceremonial significance of trees, pillars, and poles dates far back in the Germanic traditions, and the continuing practice of raising them in the Germanic-speaking world is not surprising.
Tales are told in many places about some hairy, shaggy, leafy wild-man of the forest who guards the wild lands outside of human settlement; a protector of the wilderness, but also a friend to shepherds and other people of the wilds, if they are friends of the forest.
The Romans and Greeks of antiquity venerated a hairy forest-god who rules the wild creatures, a reclusive friend of herdsmen who frolics with the wood-nymphs in the deep wilds. The Greek god of the woods and wilds is Pan, often portrayed with the horns and legs of a goat. The equivalent Roman god is Faunus, lord of animals, to whom Sylvanus and Inuus were sometimes equated.
In the various Slavic traditions, there is a figure known by many names, one of which is the Leshy ("He of the forest", "Woodsy"; Russian Леший, Polish Leszy, Serbian Лешиј / Lešij). Those who frequent the forest may encounter him; and the result will depend on how one is held in his regard. He guides some, and leads others astray.
The Basques, the last enduring successors of Europe's ancient pre-Indo-European inhabitants, tell of the Basajaunak (singular Basajaun), a race of hairy wild-folk who sometimes aid shepherds in return for offerings of bread. It is said that humankind learned the secrets of farming, smithing, and building from them in ancient times.
The hairy wild woodwose is a figure often found in European heraldry. Such wildmen were a subject of much fascination in the Middle Ages. In the infamous Bal des Ardents, King Charles VI of France nearly burned to death when his highly flammable woodwose costume caught fire. The Green Knight in the tale of Sir Gawain is sometimes interpreted as a great green wild-man. The face or figure of a leafy "green man" can be found carved on a great many old churches, buildings, doorways, and ceiling-bosses.
In some parts of England, an old May Day tradition survives in which a person is dressed up in greenery to act as "Jack o' the Green", counterpart to the May Queen.
In the background of the piece, we see some maidens wreathed in flowers dancing around a maypole; and in the foreground, we see a tense encounter at the edge of the forest between a shepherd and an intimidating sylvan being. The looming forest-creature may look threatening; but are its intentions malevolent or benevolent?
Given how calm the lost sheep seems to be, my guess would be benevolent; but then, sheep aren’t very discerning creatures.
The border consists of ivy and wild roses. Most cultivars of domestic roses are immensely puffy and petally monstrosities, but roses in their wild form have only a single row of five petals. Roses are usually depicted this way in heraldry.
