Where did the green man come from?

[Namikikyo]

Okay, so lately I've been looking up Sun Goddesses such as Sol, Sunna, and others as well as Moon Gods such as Mani and etc.

And even though I would like to know more about them, I've run across this guy before in the past. But never actually figured who or what he is.

Everytime I try to look him up, I get this fluffy bunny crap that I don't even know where to begin to sort.

Green Man

All words are thanked and appreciated in advanced.

 

[Nattfodd]

Wikipedia actually has a great article on this with sources.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_man

To summarize, Green Man really isn't a deity, but a loosely-related piece of artwork symbolizing natural deities or just plain nature. Neo-pagan practice tries to pin it to Cernunnos the most, as far as i've seen, but it's not even really inherently tied to Cernunnos.  

[Morgandria]

I actually tend to think of the Green Man as a nature spirit, rather than some sort of deity.  

[[ Nicolette ]]

The Green Man is a big focus when it comes to druidry, methinks. He isn't a deity per se, but rather the personification of the Earth itself. His counterpart/another aspect is the Green Woman, who embodies the idea of Mother Earth. I think the origin is Celtic. But the Green Man is more famous in artworks such as [door] knockers and the like. He's also hidden in some paintings as faces on trees or in the grass or something like that.  

[Starlock]

There's an entire book that traces the green man archetype... I checked it out a few years ago but I can't remember the title. Let's see if I can find it for you real quick.

I think it was this particular book, but if you do a search on amazon, there are several others out there as well. The one by John Matthews here is probably good, as he has some excellent folklore-oriented books, one of which has one awards.