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date: 19 January 2025

Wild Man, Wild Woman. 

Source:
A Dictionary of English Folklore
Author(s):
Jacqueline SimpsonJacqueline Simpson, Steve RoudSteve Roud

Medieval art included Wild Men (and occasionally Women) among its grotesques. They were a race of primitive sub-humans covered in shaggy hair, immensely strong, and living in forests; the males were usually shown wielding a branch, or even a whole tree, as a club, and sometimes crowned and belted with leaves. Their reality was confirmed by respected classical writers and by references to ‘hairy creatures in desert places’ in the Latin versions of Isaiah 13: 21 and 34: 14; they were often identified with satyrs and fauns.... ...

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