Thewild man (German:Wilder Mann,der Wilde Mann),wild man of the woods,woodwose orwodewose is a mythical figure and motif that appears in the art and literature ofmedieval Europe, comparable to thesatyr orfaun type inclassical mythology and toSilvanus, the Roman god of thewoodlands.
The defining characteristic of the figure is its "wildness"; from the 12th century, it was consistently depicted as being covered with hair. The image of the wild man survived to appear as supporter forheraldiccoats-of-arms, especially in Germany, well into the 16th century.Renaissance engravers in Germany and Italy were particularly fond of wild men, wild women, and wild families, with examples fromMartin Schongauer (died 1491) andAlbrecht Dürer (1471–1528) among others.
In wild man is attestedMiddle High German aswilde man in the 13th century romanceWigamur [de] (v. 203),[1] and in the same work the "wild wife" occurs aswildez wîp (vv. 112, 200, 227ff.)[2] (cf.§ German epic below)
In Old High German, the termwildaz wip ("wild wife, wild woman") appears in a gloss tolamia[a] andholzmoia[b] (orholzmuojia, "wood maiden" [?]) in a 10th century glossary fromMondsee in Austria, which explains it to mean "she who wails or moos in the forest".[5][6][3] Other synonyms in OHG arewildaz wip andwildaz wip.[6]
Another old example is the mention of "ad domumwildero wîbo" ("house of the wild women"), a piece of landmark ortoponymy somewhere inHessen,[8] mentioned either inCodex Eberhardi [de] (c. 1150) by the monk Eberhard of Fulda or a text close to it.[13][14][15][c]
In MHG there is also the synonymholz-wîp.[17][18]
Folklore inTyrol and German-speakingSwitzerland into the 20th century speaks of a wild woman calledFänge (Faengge,Fankke),[19] which is a post-medievalneologism deriving from the Latinfauna, the feminine form offaun.[4] The wild women of theAlpine region is "identical to or closely related to" theFänggen or the Salige (Salige Frauen).[20]
The wild man is called aBilmon (corruption of "wild man")Salvadegh, orSalvanel in Wälsch-Tirol (present-dayTrento Province),[21] which may be speltSalvan orSalvang with usage extending toLombardy.[4] The wild man is calledl'om salvadegh by theLadin language speakers of in Folgrait (Folgaria) andTrambileno; this is readily recognizable as equivalent to Frenchl'hommesauvage, where Old Frenchsalvage derives fromLatinsilvāticus "sylvan, pertaining to forest".[21] Hence these names are related toSilvanus, theRomantutelary god of gardens and the countryside.[4] The (medieval Latin) termsilvaticus was in fact used in the sense of "wild woman" byBurchard of Worms in the 10th century,[22] and it has been suggested he was referring to beings who would have been calledSelvang in dialect according to modern-day folklore.[23]
The local nameFrauberte orFrau Berta was supposedly current either in Ronchi nearAla, or the aforementioned Folgrait and Trambileno areas.[21][24][d]
For many years people in theTyrol region ofAustria called the wild manOrke,Lorke, orNoerglein, while in parts of Italy he was theorco orhuorco.[25][e]
InOld English/Anglo-Saxon there is recordedwude-wāsa meaning "satyr" or "faun",[28] a compound ofwude "woodland, forest" andwasa of uncertainetymology,[29][30]though perhaps meaning "forest dweller".[31] perhaps*wāsa "being", from the verbwesan,wosan "to be, to be alive".[32]
From it has derivedMiddle Englishwoodwose, wodewose, woodehouse also used to the present day,[f] "Wild man" and its cognates is the common term for the creature in most modern languages;[4] it appears in German aswilder Mann, in French ashomme sauvage and in Italian asuomo selvatico "forest man".[33] (with variant spelling such aswodewese, etc.,[29]) understood perhaps as variously singular or plural.[g][29][4] The formwodwos[h] occurs inSir Gawain and the Green Knight (c. 1390).[34][29]
The Middle English word is first attested for the 1340s in the context of decorative piece of art depicting a wild man, namely a piece oftapestry of theGreat Wardrobe ofEdward III,[35][i] but as a surname it is found as early as 1251, of oneRobert de Wudewuse.[30][j]
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Verbal descriptions of the wild folk in medieval literature will be mainly discussed here. Visual depictions during the medieval period will be discussed under§ Iconography.
As the name implies, the main characteristic of the wild man is hiswildness. Civilized people regarded wild men as beings of the wilderness, the antithesis ofcivilization.[38] Other characteristics developed or transmuted in different contexts. From the earliest times, sources associated wild men with hairiness; by the 12th century they were almost invariably described as having a coat of hair covering their entire bodies except for their hands, feet, faces above their long beards, and the breasts and chins of the females.[39]
InWigamur there is thewildez wîp (wild woman) who dwells in a hole in a rock.[2]
In theArthurian epicWigalois, the dwarf named Karriôz is explicitly stated to have awildez wîp as his mother.[40] InWigalois there also appears a monstrous female of the woods named Rûel as an adversary to the title hero, and though she is also described as a "wild woman" by modern commentators, she is not to be confused with Karriôz's mother.[41]
A wild man is described in the bookKonungs skuggsjá (Speculum Regale or "the King's Mirror"), written inNorway about 1250:
It once happened in that country (and this seems indeed strange) that a living creature was caught in the forest as to which no one could say definitely whether it was a man or some other animal; for no one could get a word from it or be sure that it understood human speech. It had the human shape, however, in every detail, both as to hands and face and feet; but the entire body was covered with hair as the beasts are, and down the back it had a long coarse mane like that of a horse, which fell to both sides and trailed along the ground when the creature stooped in walking.
A "black and hairy" forest-dwellingoutcast is mentioned in the tale ofRenaud de Montauban, written in the late 12th century.[42]
There are also theAlpine wild man recorded by modern folklorists, whose lore is generally found in the lore of Alps (mountainousItalian Tyrol and Italian and German-speaking parts ofGrisons,Switzerland). The wild man of the Alps had the reputation of abducting women and devouring humans, particularly children. In Grisons it is also accused of depositing its changeling child, swapping it with a human baby.[43] Allegedly peasants in the Grisons tried to capture the wild man by getting him drunk and tying him up in hopes that he would give them his wisdom in exchange for freedom.[44] This is noted as paralleling the capture ofSilenus already described byXenophon (d. 354 BC),[44] Silenus being described as asatyr whichMidas caught by getting him drunk with wine.[45][k]
Legend also has it that humans were able to capture it once by getting it drunk, thereby learning the manufacture of cheese.[l][21]
A legend from Folgrait (Folgaria) has it that a certain man heard the noise of the wild man hunting, and called out to him inrhymed couplet to give him a share,[m] and received half a human corpse at his doorstep, subsequently taking pains to have the hunter take it back.[46][21] There are also variant versions with different rhymes fromRitten andBarbian.[48][n] However, in a cognate tale fromVallarsa, the wild hunter is not specified as a "wild man".[49] It is comparable to a similarwild hunter myth from Northern Germany, that if anyone calls out to heckle the hunt, hunter forces a "half portion" (Halb Part) of foul-smelling game or human part, reciting a couplet that if you join in the hunt, you must help out with the chewing.[51]
Meanwhile, the Tyrolian and SwissFängge (Faengge, Fankke)[19] as well as the AustrianSalige Frau are (subtypes or aliases of the) wild woman.[52]
The wild woman, theFängge, and theSalige Frau are all associated with protecting alpine game, especially thechamois[o][53][54] The legendary protectress calledKaiserfrau of Nachtberg (a peak situated betweenThiersee andBrandenberg, Austria) is not explicitly called a wild woman in the original telling,[55] but is classified as such.[56] In the tail, the tall woman dressed in green robe commands a shepherd to kill all poachers, otherwise she will destroy his entire flock. He obliges, and due to the reputation the Kaiserfrau harms hunters, the stock of game in the forest rebounds.[55]
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The wild man was used as a symbol ofmining in late medieval and Renaissance Germany. It appears in this context in the coats of arms ofNaila and ofWildemann. The town of Wildemann in theUpper Harz was founded during 1529 by miners who, according to legend, met a wild man and wife when they ventured into the wilds of theHarz mountain range.
Some early sets ofplaying cards have a suit of Wild Men, including a pack engraved by theMaster of the Playing Cards (active in theRhineland c. 1430–1450), some of the earliest European engravings. A set of four miniatures on the estates of society byJean Bourdichon of about 1500 includes a wild family, along with "poor", "artisan" and "rich" ones.
For use as heraldic devices, cf.§ Heraldry below.
Some of the earliest evidence for the wild-man tradition appears in the above-mentioned 9th- or 10th-century Spanish penitential.[27] This book describes a dance in which participants donned the guise of the figures Orcus, Maia, and Pela, and ascribes a minor penance for those who participate with what was apparently a resurgence of an older pagan custom.[27][p]
Images of wild men appear in the carved and paintedroof bosses where intersectingogeevaults meet inCanterbury Cathedral, in positions where one is also likely to encounter the vegetalGreen Man.
In art the hair more often covers the same areas that a chemise or dress would, except for the female's breasts; male knees are also often hairless. As with thefeather tights of angels, this is probably influenced by the costumes of popular drama. The female depiction also followsMary Magdalene's hair suit in art; in medieval legend this miraculously appeared when she retreated to the desert after Christ's death, and her clothes fell apart.[58]
Martin Schongauer depicted wild people several times, including on four heraldic shieldengravings of the 1480s which depict wild men holding the coat of arms of the print's patrons. Each image is confined within an approximately 78 mm circular composition which is not new to Schongauer's oeuvre.
InWild Man Holding a Shield with a Hare and a Shield with a Moor's Head, the wild man holds two parallel shields, which seem to project from the groin of the central figure. The wild man supports the weight of the shields on two cliffs. The hair on the apex of the wild man's head is adorned with twigs which project outward; as if to make a halo. The wild man does not look directly at the viewer; in fact, he looks down somberly toward the bottom right region of his circular frame. His somber look is reminiscent of that an animal trapped in a zoo as if to suggest that he is upset to have been tamed.
There is a stark contrast between the first print andShield with a Greyhound, held by a Wild Man as this figure stands much more confidently. Holding a bludgeon, he looks past the shield and off into the distance while wearing a crown of vines. In Schongauer's third print,Shield with Stag Held by Wild Man, the figure grasps his bludgeon like a walking stick and steps in the same direction as the stag. He too wears a crown of vines, which trail behind into the wind toward a jagged mountaintop.
In his fourth print,Wild Woman Holding a Shield with a Lion's Head, Schongauer depicts a different kind of scene. This scene is more intimate. The image depicts a wild woman sitting on a stump with her suckling offspring at her breast. While the woman's body is covered in hair her face is left bare. She also wears a crown of vines. Then, compared to the other wild men, the wild woman is noticeably disproportionate.
Finally, each print is visually strong enough to stand alone as individual scenes, but when lined up it seems as if they were stamped out of a continuous scene with a circular die.
![Tapestry: Wild Men and Moors, c. 1440 (Museum of Fine Arts Boston)[59]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWild_Men_and_Moors_(Detail_09_of_12).jpg)
![The city of Antwerp introduced supporters for its coat of arms during 1881, with a "wild woman" and a wild man[60]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aCoat_of_arms_of_Antwerp_(City).svg)
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The so-calledWildemannstaler [de] was a type of taler (thaler, "dollar") denomination coins featuring a standing wild man on the reverse, first struck by DukeHenry the Younger of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in 1539,[62][63] with the silver mined from theUpper Harz mountains.[64] Thus, much of this wild man is really part of silver-mining folklore. The standing wild man on the early coin (and some heraldic illustrations) depicts a wild man holding a club (uprooted tree[65]) and a clump of burning flame in the other hand (cf. photo right).[62] The folkloric explanation of the flame is that it represents a light source or beacon of light to guide humans through the dark mine tunnels to the ore source or silvervein, as clarified by the work ofGerhard Heilfurth [de] andIna-Maria Greverus (1967).[66] Heilfurth regards the wild man in this context to be a type ofBerggeist or "mountain spirit" (which is really a generic term or class used by modern folklorists), better known asBergmönch or "mountain monk" in the folklore of theHarz mountains. The explanation of the "monk" name comes from the historical fact that the neighboringWalkenried Monastery held control of the workings of the Harz mining operation at one time.[67]
The folklore is attested in 16th century writing that in the community ofWildemann (town named after "wild man"):
helt man dafür, daß daß Closter von Walckenred sonderlichen den Wildemanner Zog inne gehabt, beleget vnd gebawet hat, weil sich der Daemon Metallicus, der Bergteuffel, den die Bergleut daß Berg Mänlein nennen, in einer gestalt eines großen Mönchs hat sehen laßen, fürnemlich auff der Zechen Wildemann, da viel guter leute denselbigen gesehen, auch offtmals großen schaden gethan vnd angericht.
(It is believed that the Walkenried Monastery held, occupied, and built upon the Wildemann mine in particular, since theDaemon Metallicus or mountain devil, whom the miners call the "mountain manikin" (Bergmanlein, i.e.gnome), appeared in the form of a large monk, especially at the Wildemann mine, where many good people saw him, and he often caused great damage and destruction.
There is also the political and polemical interpretation of the wild man and the flame insinuating threat of violence in Henry the Younger's coin.[62][69] When Henry's less quarrelsome sonJulius succeeded as duke, the flame on the coin was replaced by a litcandle ortaper, and these coins are known as theLichttaler or "Light talers" among numismatists. Later, Julius added other objects, the skull, thehourglass, and eyeglasses to the composition.[70][71]
KingCharles VI of France and five of his courtiers were dressed as wild men and chained together for amasquerade at the tragicBal des Sauvages which occurred in Paris at theHôtel Saint-Pol, 28 January 1393. They were "in costumes of linen cloth sewn onto their bodies and soaked in resinous wax or pitch to hold a covering of frazzled hemp, so that they appeared shaggy & hairy from head to foot".[72] In the midst of the festivities, a stray spark from a torch set their flammable costumes ablaze, burning several courtiers to death; the king's own life was saved through quick action by his aunt,Joann, who covered him with her dress.
The Burgundian court celebrated apas d'armes known as thePas de la Dame Sauvage ("Passage of arms of the Wild Lady") in Ghent in 1470.A knight held a series of jousts with an allegoric meaning in which the conquest of the wild lady symbolized the feats the knight must do to merit a lady.
Figures similar to the European wild man occur worldwide from very early times. The earliest recorded example of the type is the characterEnkidu of theancient MesopotamianEpic of Gilgamesh.[73][74]
The insanity ofNebuchadnezzar II in theBook of Daniel (2nd century BC) may have greatly influenced the medieval European concepts.[75]Daniel 4 depicts God humbling theBabylonian king for his boastfulness; stricken mad and ejected from human society, he grows hair on his body and lives like a beast. This image was popular in medieval depictions of Nebuchadnezzar.Late medieval legends of SaintJohn Chrysostom (died 407) describe the saint'sasceticism as making him so isolated and feral that hunters who capture him cannot tell if he is man or beast.[42]
The medieval wild man is comparable to a number of classical woodland divinities. The medieval wild man typically depicted holding an uprooted tree may have derived form the classical Silvanus who is lord of the gardens and uprooter of trees, though the latter is more prone to be holding acypress sapling he is about to transplant.[76] Thecentaur is more likely to hold a club, though this creature is of course, half horse.[76]
There are instances where medieval depiction of satyr orfaunus lose their beastly traits (hooves and horns), turning into creatures not so far apart from wild men.[76] Conversely, Medieval myth and art adopted a convention of depicting the Greek heroHeracles, clad inlion skin and carrying a club as a wild man, sometimes of a more conventional type[q] or more outlandishly as a tailed monster with clawed feet.[r][77]
Besides mythological influences, Medieval wild man lore also drew on the learned writings of ancient historians, though likely to a lesser degree.[78] These ancient wild men are naked and sometimes covered with hair, though importantly the texts generally localize them in some faraway land,[78] distinguishing them from the medieval wild man who was thought to exist just at the boundaries of civilization. The firsthistorian to describe such beings,Herodotus (c. 484 BC – c. 425 BC), places them in westernLibya alongside theheadless men with eyes in their chest anddog-faced creatures.[79] After the appearance of the formerPersian court physicianCtesias's bookIndika (concerningIndia), which recorded Persian beliefs about theIndian subcontinent, and the conquests ofAlexander the Great, India became the primary home of fantastic creatures in the Western imagination, and wild men were frequently described as living there.[79]Megasthenes,Seleucus I Nicator's ambassador toChandragupta Maurya, wrote of two kinds of men to be found in India whom he explicitly describes as wild: first, a creature brought to court whose toes faced backwards; second, a tribe of forest people who had no mouths and who sustained themselves with smells.[80] BothQuintus Curtius Rufus andArrian refer to Alexander himself meeting with a tribe of fish-eating savages while on his Indian campaign.[81]
Distorted accounts ofapes may have contributed to both the ancient and medieval conception of the wild man. In hisNatural HistoryPliny the Elder describes a race ofsilvestres, wild creatures in India who had humanoid bodies but a coat of fur, fangs, and no capacity to speak – a description that fitsgibbons indigenous to the area.[80] The ancientCarthaginian explorerHanno the Navigator (fl. 500 BC) reported an encounter with a tribe of savage men and hairy women in what may have beenSierra Leone; their interpreters called them "Gorillae," a story which much later originated the name of thegorilla species and could indeed have related to agreat ape.[80][82] Similarly, the Greek historianAgatharchides describes what may have beenchimpanzees as tribes of agile, promiscuous "seed-eaters" and "wood-eaters" living inEthiopia.[83]
One of the historical precedents which could have inspired the wild man representation could be theGrazers; a group of monks inEastern Christianity which lived alone, without eating meat, and often completely naked.[84] They were viewed as saints inByzantine society, and thehagiographical accounts about their lives were spread in all of Christianity, possibly influencing later authors.[84][85][86]
Old High German had the termsschrat,scrato orscrazo, which appear in glosses of Latin works as translations forfauni,silvestres, orpilosi, identifying the creatures as hairy woodland beings.[4] Some of the local names suggest associations with characters from ancient mythology.Slavic hasleshy "forest man".
Wild (divi) people are the characters of the Slavic folk demonology, mythical forest creatures.[87] Names go back to two related Slavic roots*dik- and*div-, combining the meaning of "wild" and "amazing, strange".
In the East Slavic sources referred:Saratovdikar, dikiy, dikoy, dikenkiy muzhichok –leshy; a short man with a big beard and tail;Ukrainianlisovi lyudi – old men with overgrown hair who give silver to those who rub their nose;Kostromadikiychort;Vyatkadikonkiy unclean spirit, sending paralysis; Ukrainianlihiy div – marsh spirit, sending fever;Ukrainian Carpathiandika baba – an attractive woman inseven-league boots, sacrifices children and drinks their blood, seduces men.[87] There are similarities between the East Slavic reports about wild people and book legends aboutdiviy peoples (unusual people from the medieval novel "Alexandria") and mythical representations of miraculous peoples. For example, Russians fromUral believe thatdivnye lyudi are short, beautiful, have a pleasant voice, live in caves in the mountains, can predict the future; among the Belarusians ofVawkavysk uyezd, thedzikie lyudzi – one-eyed cannibals living overseas, also drink lamb blood; among the Belarusians ofSokółka uyezd, the overseasdzikij narod have grown wool, they have a long tail and ears like an ox; they do not speak, but only squeal.[87]
Some scholars regard the IrishIrish tradition ofBuile Shuibhne (The Madness of Sweeney, 9th century[88]) as resembling the widely dispersed Wild Man of the Woods tradition,[89] or indeed consider it to be a migratory tale transmitted from a northern (nordic) Wild Man tradition.[90] The same relationship (transmission from the north) has been postulated for the parallelingWelsh story aboutMyrddin Wyllt,[89][90] precursor to theMerlin of later romance.[s]
The Irish tale describes how Suibhne or Sweeney, the pagan king of theDál nAraidi inUlster, assaults the Christian bishop Ronan Finn and is cursed with madness as a result. He begins to grow feathers and talons as the curse runs its full course, flies like a bird, and spends many years travelling naked through the woods, composing verses among other madmen. In order to be forgiven by God, King Suibhne composes a beautiful poem of praise to God before he dies. There are further poems and stories recounting the life and madness of King Suibhne.[91]
The Welsh lore presents Myrddin is a warrior in the service of KingGwenddoleu ap Ceidio at the time of theBattle of Arfderydd. When his lord is killed at the battle, Myrddin travels to theCaledonian Forest in a fit of madness which endows him with the ability to compose prophetic poetry; a number of later prophetic poems are attributed to him.[s]The Life of Saint Kentigern includes almost the same story, though here the madman of Arfderydd is instead namedLailoken, which may be the original name.[s]
The fragmentary 16th-centuryBreton textAn Dialog Etre Arzur Roe D'an Bretounet Ha Guynglaff (Dialog Between Arthur and Guynglaff) tells of a meeting betweenKing Arthur and Guynglaff ("a sort of wild man of the woods"), who predicts events which will occur as late as the 16th century.[92]
Geoffrey of Monmouth recounts the Myrddin Wyllt legend in his LatinVita Merlini of about 1150, though here the figure has been renamed "Merlin". According to Geoffrey, after Merlin witnessed the horrors of the battle:
... a strange madness came upon him. He crept away and fled to the woods, unwilling that any should see his going. Into the forest he went, glad to lie hidden beneath the ash trees. He watched the wild creatures grazing on the pasture of the glades. Sometimes he would follow them, sometimes pass them in his course. He made use of the roots of plants and of grasses, of fruit from trees and of the blackberries in the thicket. He became a Man of the Woods, as if dedicated to the woods. So for a whole summer he stayed hidden in the woods, discovered by none, forgetful of himself and of his own, lurking like a wild thing.
Shakespeare'sThe Winter's Tale (1611), the dance of twelve "Satyrs" conflates wild men and satyrs.[93] The dance is held at the rustic sheep-shearing (IV.iv), described by a servant:
Masters, there is three carters, three shepherds, three neat-herds, three swine-herds, that have made themselves all men of hair, they call themselves Saltiers,[t] and they have a dance which the wenches say is a gallimaufrey[u] of gambols...[v]
Petrus Gonsalvus (born 1537) was referred to by Ulisse Aldrovandi as "the man of the woods" due to his condition,hypertrichosis, and it is believed that his marriage to the lady Catherine inspired the fairy taleBeauty and the Beast.[non-primary source needed]
The termwood-woses or simplyWoses is used byJ. R. R. Tolkien to describe a fictional race of wild men, theDrúedain, in his books onMiddle-earth. According to Tolkien'slegendarium, other men, including theRohirrim, mistook the Drúedain forgoblins or other wood-creatures and referred to them as Púkel-men (Goblin-men). He allows the fictional possibility that his Drúedain were the "actual" origin of the wild men of later traditional folklore.[94][95]
British poetTed Hughes used the formwodwo as the title of a poem and a 1967 volume of his collected works.[96]
The fictional characterTarzan fromEdgar Rice Burroughs' 1912 novelTarzan of the Apes has been described as a modern version of the wild man archetype.[73]
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