IN A WORLD closely dependent on nature, the Wild Man and the Green Man played important yet seemingly opposite roles in the art, literature, and imagination of the Middle Ages. The irrationality and violence of animal force, destructive when untamed, collides with and complements the supposedly benevolent and joyous presence of vegetable life, passive and quiet. What are, then, the real differences and similarities between these two figures, both the offspring of nature and of the medieval mind, and what is their importance?

Working in the context of the present historiographical concerns with marginalization and margins, this chapter opens with a discussion about the conceptual and visual relation between the Wild Man and the Green Man, from a broader, European context, and then moves to the specific circumstances of some Portuguese examples.

I often talk here of the Middle Ages as if it were a single block of cultural history, mainly for practical purposes. This doesn't mean, however, that one should forget the huge discrepancies caused by distances of place and time in a period that lasted a thousand years, assuming different shapes in different territories of the Old Continent. Also, the subliminal differences between what one may call the Romanesque and the Gothic Middle Ages must always be considered, especially while referring to mental attitudes towards nature in each of the cultural contexts. But, since the differences and changes operated in the human imaginary and the material realms are as interesting as its similarities and continuities, I choose to open the chronological spectrum to the all-encompassing nature of medieval art and culture.

Setting the Stage: Nature, Wilderness, and Wildness

The long period historiographically identified with the Middle Ages is, interestingly enough, marked by two dramatically opposed climatic phases. The first one, commonly known as the “little optimum” or medieval warm period, occurred between the eleventh and the fourteenth centuries. During this time, nature was often kind, allowing bountiful harvests and providing the ideal background for huge population growth, both in rural and urban areas.