The Land of the Green Man: A Journey through the Supernatural Landscapes of the British Isles

This is the Britain of mist-drenched forests and unpredictable sea-frets: of wraith-like fog banks, druidic mistletoe and peculiar creatures that lurk, half-unseen, in the undergrowth, tantalising and teasing just at the periphery of human vision. Beyond its housing estates and identikit high streets there is another Britain. Fairies, elves and goblins here tread purposefully, sometimes malignly, over an eerie, preternatural landscape that also conceals brownies, selkies, trows, knockers, boggarts, land-wights, Jack o'Lanterns, Barguests, the sinister Nuckleavee, or water-horse, and even Black Shuck: terrifying hell-hound of the Norfolk coast with eyes of burning coal. Evoking the Wild Hunt, the ghostly bells of Lyonesse and the dread fenlands haunted by Grendel, and ranging the while from Shetland to Jersey and from Ireland to East Anglia, this is a book that will captivate all those who long for the wild places: the mountains and chasms where Gog, Magog and their fellow giants lie in wait.. Focusing on liminal points where the boundaries between this world and that of the supernatural grow thin – those marginal tide-banks, saltmarshes, floodplains, moors and rock-pools wherein mystery lies – the author shows how mythologies of Mermen, Green men and Wild-men have hel

Carolyne Larrington is Fellow and Tutor in Medieval English Literature at St John’s College, Oxford. . Her previous books include The Women’s Companion to Mythology (1997), The Poetic Edda (2008), King Arthur’s Enchantresses: Morgan and her Sisters in Arthuran Tradition (I.B.Tauris, 2006) and Magical Tales: Myth, Legend and Enchantment in Children’s Books (2013)

"A Different Travel Guide for the British Isles" according to Wallace Rinkelhaus. There is the land we know, the familiar terrain on which we live, engaging in a myriad of activities. We find our way around this land, home, by maps, by directions given by others, by personal knowledge, acquired over time and through practice and repetition.And there is the land we remember. When I drive home to North Carolina, where I was born and raised, where I came of age, educated, and began my adult life (1950s-90s), memory tells me I am coming home, even if the landscape has changed. I physically feel . Four Stars Excellent use of the English language. "Engaging Folklore Analyse" according to Richard A. Whipple. “All the weirwoods of the isle on which the pact was forged were then carved with faces so that the gods could witness the Pact, and the order of green men was made afterward to tend to the weirwoods and protect the isle.” – page 9, , The World of Ice & Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire), George R. R. Martin.“It is possible that a few survived on the Isle of Faces, as some have written, under the protection of the green men, whom the And

It reminds us of the true magic of the countryside. The Land of the Green Man is a labour of love - a blend of lively storytelling and literary analysis - drawing on a knowledge that has evolved not only from personal experience but also decades of learning and teaching, passing on these accounts to students orally just like the storytellers of the past. It combines a charmingly informal style with impressive learning, mixing personal anecdotes and retellings of local legends with a deep knowledge of the history and literature of our islands, and evocative descriptions of the landscape. She shows how, through lightly coded metaphors, they deal with the relations of man and woman, master and servant, the living and the dead, the outer semblance and the inner self, mankind and the natural environment. Carolyne Larrington has made a representative selection, which she re-tells in a sim