Any visitor the the churches of Suffolk, Norfolk, or many other counties may have come across carvings of “The Hairy Wild Man”. They are often found on fonts, around doors or even carved in the misericords. These club wielding figures are known as Woodwoses.
Research frequently gives their origins to folk myths from India or older Celtic myths, linking them to the wild men of the woods, Jacks in the Green and The Green Man.
The Woodwose appears frequently in literature such as Geoffrey of Monmouth’s, “Life of Merlin”.
I’m guessing their true origins will never be known, but the Saxons had a word for them “wuduwasa”, so their origins may be far older and rooted way way back in Britain’s mysterious past.
