#wodewose

Wild Men of the Woods throughout cultures.

1. Wild Man on Unicorn c. 1460

2. L'homme sauvage, a gargoyle from Notre-Dame Cathedral of the Annunciation of Moulins

3. Kwakwaka'wakw dancer as Bukwas.

4. King of the Wild Men c. 1450

Story Idea: Journey to the East

(Fig. 1 - From The Genealogy of the Royal Houses of Spain and Portugal (the Portuguese Genealogy), Lisbon and Bruges, 1530–1534 (larger version). The original image was found here. This figure is clearly based on depictions of Heracles / Hercules.) 

The great Chinese classic Journey to the West (Xiyouji, 西遊記, 1592) (The Journey, hereafter) can be summarized thus: The Buddha feels that China has become an immoral nation and therefore sends the Bodhisattva Guanyin to seek out a pilgrim from the East who will make the quest to India in order to retrieve salvation-bestowing scriptures. A young Buddhist monk of the Chinese Tang Empire is chosen, and along the way he takes on four monstrous disciples, including a monkey spirit, a pig spirit, a river spirit, and a dragon-turned-horse, who protect him along the journey. These disciples defend their master against leagues of demons and spirits who wish to eat his flesh. After countless tribulations, the group completes their mission and are welcomed into the Buddha’s paradise as a reward.

Now imagine this story taking place in Medieval Christian Europe. A young (French or German) Christian monk is chosen by the Virgin Mary to journey to Jerusalem to retrieve salvation-bestowing scriptures. But unlike Tripitaka from The Journey, who is a Bodhisattva reborn on earth, the monk could be a former saint or angel. He too takes on monstrous disciples. Sun Wukong could be replaced by a club-wielding Wodewose or “Wild Man”. See figure one for an illustration of a fur-clad example from the 1530s. The club, leopard fur, and headdress are all perfect proxies for Monkey’s staff, tiger-skin kilt, and headband. Perhaps this Wild Man is an old god from pre-Christian Europe or even the biblical figure Cain, who is sometimes portrayed as a hairy man in medieval traditions. His club could be a treasure from heaven or Cain's infamous jawbone weapon. The wreath headdress could serve the same purpose of keeping his raw power and unpredictability in check. Or, considering being a Wild Man was also thought a form of madness (that brought with it physiological changes like the growth of hair all over the body), the headdress could provide lucidity, essentially suppressing Cain's wild, bestial nature and power until absolutely needed. In place of Zhu Bajie, Sha Wujing, and the dragon horse, the monk’s other disciples could be fallen angels-turned-demons, each being subdued by the Wild Man and reformed. Each could be based on figures drawn from European and/or Judeo-Christian mythology. Their weapons too could be from heaven. The disciples then defend the monk from all manner of witches, demons, and spirits who wish to eat him. Tripitaka is pursued in The Journey because cultivating religious piety over ten lifetimes has made him a walking elixir capable of bestowing immortality on any monster who eats a piece of his flesh. Perhaps the Christian monk’s origins as a saint or angel explains why he too is pursued by evil. Casting the Wild Man as Cain would make this aspect interesting since religious sources depict him as the origin of all monsters on earth. He would essentially be battling his extended progeny. The group retrieves the scriptures from Jerusalem and delivers them to Europe, and in the end they are welcomed into heaven as a reward, each one achieving a particular heavenly rank.

28: Ride