β€œThe Wicker Man”: from folklore to folk-horror

For the making of "The Wicker Man", Robin Hardy and Anthony Shaffer delved into British folklore and modeled the Beltane ceremony and its preparations on the ancient propitiatory rites of Calendimaggio and the late winter procession, centered on the ritual sacrifice of the "Fool "," King of Disorder ".


di Marco Maculotti
updated version of the article originally published on Noisey Italy

Written by Anthony Shaffer and directed by Robin Hardy (inspired by the novel RΒ by David Pinner),Β The Wicker ManΒ (1973) is now considered one of the cornerstones of that cinematographic current sui generis defined "Folk horror", which saw its heyday in XNUMXs Britain (other notable films are, for example, Penda's FenΒ by David Rudkin and Alan Clarke,Β The Great Inquisitor by Michael Reeves eΒ The skin of Satan by Piers Haggard) and which is making a strong comeback today (we can mentionΒ The WitchΒ by Robert Eggers,Β Midsummer di ari asterΒ eΒ The RitualΒ by David Bruckner).

Yet, in hindsight, Robin Hardy has never defined The Wicker Man a horror movie. At a time when British "genre" cinema was dominated by gothic atmospheres and ghost and vampire stories (the same Christopher Lee, who appears here as Lord Summerisle, owes his fame primarily to his interpretations of Count Dracula in the Hammer films), Shaffer and Hardy were intrigued by clash ideological between Christianity and "paganism", which for millennia (and, in the case of the remote northern British Isles, until a few centuries ago) was the dominant religious system in Europe.

On the islet of Summerisle, in the Scottish Hebrides, Christianity is known, but the attention is shifted to its critical and paradoxical sides, who are constantly ridiculed by the village authorities. In this way, Shaffer and Hardy want to make the viewer reflect on the strong influence that a belief, whatever it may be, can have on a community that is spatially and ideologically separated from the rest of the world, building the foundations of its ethical code and its peculiar culture.

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The "traditional" sources

To immerse the viewer in the "pagan" atmosphere that reigns in Summerisle, Hardy and Shaffer make a series of very precise stylistic and visual choices, disseminating the scene with symbols that betray a certain "esoteric" research: the eye on the boat, the face of the Sun adored by the community, the hexagram formed by the swords in conjunction during the rite of Calendimaggio, the zoomorphic masks worn by all the members of the community, the Hand of Glory, and so on.

It is no coincidence that one of the main inspirations for Shaffer and Hardy, in addition of course to the novel by David Pinner that inspired the film, was The Golden BranchΒ by the Scottish anthropologist sir. James Frazer, defined by Hardy as a kind ofΒ Β«Detective story that goes back to the origins of virtually all religionsΒ». The film was therefore conceived with the intention of presenting the traditional elements in an objective way, with an authentic soundtrack and a credible contemporary setting, in order to highlight those "magical" beliefs on which the life of rural communities was based. of the British Isles (and beyond) before the advent of Christianity.

A religion dead, therefore, but not entirely: in the small island of Summerisle these rites and practices would have been reintroduced just after the rural communities became aware of the fact that Christian values ​​and dictates cannot adequately supply the needs of a community that places all in the fertility of the earth and the clemency of heaven its hopes of subsistence and survival. The thought automatically goes to the Celts and Druidism, although for some scholars, including Lewis Spence, the Druidic religion would be grafted onto a pre-existing one, having as its basis a sort of "Circular cosmography" [1], moreover then maintained in the sacred conception of the Celtic peoples strictly speaking.

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Testimonials regarding these "Pagan survivals" on the other hand they are scattered over the centuries within British ecclesiastical literature. For example, St. Bernard, in the workΒ Life of Malachi, Archbishop of ArmaghΒ (1130), testifies to the existence of two islets in the marshy lagoon of Monincha, in Ireland; on one there is a male monastery, on the other a female one. Giraldus Cambrensis, writing about this community in the 2th century, called it "The Church of the Ancient Religion" and described its inhabitants as "demons" [XNUMX].

READ MOREΒ  Lussi, the "Luminosa": the pagan and "dark" double of Saint Lucia

The "King of Malgovernment" and the "May Bride"

Among the rites that most inspired the creation of The Wicker Man we cannot fail to mention the Roman Saturnalia, a year-end celebration during which the social order was subverted with the election of a princeps ("King for a day") who was temporarily assigned all power, only to be ritually immolated. The chosen one was usually dressed in a funny mask and a flamboyant dress, and was considered the personification of an underworld and winter deity, whose periodic sacrifice would cyclically allow the return of Spring and, therefore, fertilize the soil for the year to come. . Not dissimilar is the original sense ofΒ Carnival, so much so that in the character of the same name we can recognize "a continuer of the King of Saturnalia", as underlined byΒ Toschi [3]:

"Like this one, who, assuming the role of the God Saturn and the" King of Spree ", was finally sacrificed, so the Carnival character, after having taken part in all the manifestations of joy and revelry, was tried, condemned and burned . "

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In the British context, the equally winter celebration (January 6) ofΒ Christmas DayΒ o Old Reckoning, in which the "Christmas Mad" or "King of Disorder / Malgovernment" (King of Misrule), a winter / hellish epiphany, was conducted in a triumphal procession by individuals disguised as animals, dancers equipped with swords and morris-men, before being ritually sacrificed. In a typical song that can still be heard today in Revesby, Lincolnshire, the comedians after killing the King of Misrule, their father, intone [4]:

Β« Cut down our father like the evening sun
And here he lies in all his purple gore,
And we are afraid he will never dance anymore. Β»

This concern, in the British pantomime, is punctually followed by the rebirth of the Father-King, not however as a winter epiphany, but also as a spring-summer epiphany: the god Lugh who will then be celebrated at the beginning of August, during Lammas or Lughnasadh, the feast of the first harvest. But central to the creation of The Wicker ManΒ it is also the sacred celebration preceding the latter, viz Beltane or May Day, fertility festival centered on the veneration of the telluric-chthonic Goddess and her corresponding land, that is to say the girl of the village who was elected "Bride of May" or "Queen of May"Β (in the film in question the "queen" is of course Rowan, the missing child that Sergeant Howie desperately searches for, convinced that she has been sacrificed). All confirmed by Robin Hardy himself in an interview in which he stated:

« The Queen of the May is also a sacrifice in her own way. And both are offered up to the gods in supplication for the resurgence of the crops and the regeneration of life. In countries off the northwest coast of Europe, much of the year is spent in darkness with the sun barely rising off the horizon. Ancient peoples feared the sun might never up come again, and that was a powerful reason to propitiate the gods. When spring occurred, that blessing was attributed to the gods. "

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Nursery Rhymes for a Sacrifice

A central role in the economy of the film is certainly to be attributed to the splendid soundtrack composed by Paul Giovanni and recorded with Magnet, embellished with folk songs also interpreted by the same actors in the film: for example, Lesley Mackie, who plays Daisy, lends her voice for the opening piece, while β€œWillow's Song” is sung by Britt Ekland. Lullabies and chants accompany the main scenes, making the film somehow a "half-musical" (which, however, is always denied by Robin Hardy) and playing a key role in building the atmosphere. On the other hand, they are largely traditional songs, the contents of which can help us to understand even better the sacral substratum on which the β€œworld view” of the inhabitants of Summerisle is based.

For example, thesound incipitΒ of the opening scene is entrusted to a diptych inspired by two poems by Robert Burns: "The Highland Widow's Lament" of 1794 and "The Rigs O 'Barley" of 1783, sung by female and male voices respectively. The second, renamed "Corn rings”, Is inspired by the pagan festival of Lamas ( "It was upon a Lammas night / When corn rigs are bonie”) During which, at the beginning of August, the first harvest of the year was celebrated.

READ MOREΒ  Evans-Pritchard and the rationality of a "wild" people: the Azande

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"Kindly Johnny", On the other hand, is a ghostly love ballad, constantly poised between eroticism (the text is full of double meanings with a sexual background) and mystical inspiration, with a melancholy vein given by Paul Giovanni's tone of voice, flutes and from the arches. It is about a traditional English ballad, quoted by Cecil Sharp in 1907 in a sweetened version; Paul Giovanni took up the words of the instrumental part based on the chords reported by Sharp. The scene of the film in which it resonates, shot in the "Green Man Pub" and in the neighboring fields, is inspired by theancient rite of the Greenwood Marriages, during which, in Calendimaggio, the vows of marriage fidelity were temporarily suspended and the community fornicated in the fields to make the soil "pregnant".

In the next sequence, Lord Summerisle hands a young man to the host's busty daughter, Willow - the community's β€œAphrodite”, as she is called - to be initiated into the mystery of sexuality (and fertility). The scene, interspersed by two snails that mate and by the prayers of the protagonist, ends precisely with a collective nocturnal orgy in the fields and among the foliage. As he points out Richard Heinberg [5]Β "This coordinated, sanctioned release of procreative energy served two purposes: to strengthen bonds within the community, and to stimulate and revitalize the earth", to which must be added the note of Mircea eliade, according to which [6]:

β€œWe must be careful not to misunderstand these licentious excesses, because this is not a question of sexual freedom, in the modern and irreverent sense of the term. In pre-modern times, sexuality, like all other functions of life, was invested with sacredness. It was a way of participating in the fundamental mystery of life and fertility Β»

Moreover, even Willow's name is not accidental.Β Robert GravesΒ certifies thatΒ the willow is traditionally and even earlier semantically connected to witches: the terms witchΒ eΒ willowΒ they derive from the same root, just as they also derive from the same rootΒ wickedΒ ("Wicked") and, precisely,Β wickerΒ ("Wicker"), namely the branch of Salix viminalis, plant used by the Celts for the realization of the puppet in the famous sacrificial practice ofΒ Wicker Man.

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The nextΒ sequence of the summerisle community children's roundabout around the maypole (the equivalent of our local "Tree of the Cuccagna", both symbolic images ofaxis beat) is marked by a nursery rhyme childish and at the same time, in the eyes of Sergeant Howie, disturbing:

« In the woods there grew a tree
And a fine fine tree was he
And on that tree there was a limb
And on that limb there was a branch
And on that branch there was a nest
And in that nest there was an egg
And in that egg there was a bird
And from that bird a feather came
And of that feather was
At bed.

And on that bed there was a girl
And on that girl there was a man
And from that man there was a seed
And from that seed there was a boy
And from that boy there was a man
And for that man there was a grave
And from that grave there grew
a tree. Β»

The nursery rhyme, as you can guess, is centered on the mystery ofEternal Return, the mystery of the birth-death-and-reincarnation of beings and of the interdependence between the human, animal and plant world. The logical passage between tree, animal life, sexual union between male and female, procreation, death and regeneration of the Being is, also in the light of other practices and beliefs that have survived on the island, enlightening. This can be related to the "metaphysics of the seed" of the chthonic goddess Keridwen, as set forth by Lewis Spence [7]. However, Sergeant Howie, a convinced Christian, is shocked, therefore disinterested in grasping the traditional wisdom of a population that has not abjured its position within the β€œSacred Circle” of the Universe.

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The following "Fire Leap”Is set to a panic melody, supported by flutes and whistles typical of Dionysian orgiastic ceremonies and the magnificent voice of very young girls Vestals of Fire, dancing naked, twirling over the flame to become pregnant with the Cosmic Fire:

Β« Take the flame inside you
Burn and burn below
Fire seed and fire feed
To make the baby grow
. Β»

In Howie's eyes all this can mean nothing but superstition and depravity, but Lord Summerisle replies with irony and firmness that the young women are completely naked. According to the latter, the beliefs of his community no longer seem absurd than the teachings contained in the Gospels - a God made man by incarnating in the womb of a virgin - but obviously Howie is disgusted to see people so far removed from the Christian sense of modesty and Sin.

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Probably the most famous song on the soundtrack is the poignant "Willow's Song”, Later remade by various artists, including i Nature and Organization. In one of the highlights of the film, Willow dances naked in her room, adjacent to that of a Howie now on the verge of endurance, banging on the wall that divides them to get her attention. The words, once again on the ridge between dream and lust ("A stroke as gentle as a feather / I'll catch a rainbow from the sky / And tie the ends together. " [...] "How a maid can milk a bull / And every stroke a bucketful"), render the scene dreamlike, spooky and at the same time naturally erotic, supported by the panting voice of actress Britt Ekland, who offers herself to the sergeant as a kind of luminous epiphany:

« Would you have a wondrous sight?
The midday sun at midnight. Β»

La scene of the Beltane procession is marked by a instrumental version of the traditional "Willy O 'Winsbury" (the first known version dates back to 1775), also redone by John Renbourn and Dai Pentacle in the albumΒ Solomon's Seal. Compared to the traditional and pop versions, the remake of Paul Giovanni and the Magnet is more serious and martial. The community of Summerisle, transfigured with zoomorphic masks, advances like an army towards the place of the great final rite, as in a Lovecraftian tale. The trend is underlined by solemn breaths and decisive snares, in a crescendo that makes the spectator (and Sergeant Howie himself) aware that the epilogue is about to arrive.

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Natural continuation of the melody that accompanies the procession is "Chop chop! ", A cadenced rhythm of bagpipes, strings and drums, based on the traditional rhyme" Oranges and Lemons ", which accompanies the symbolic death of each member of the community, in order to bring new life to the earth: each fellow countryman passes under the yoke of death and symbolic rebirth, offering his head to the swords that the delegates weave to form a six-pointed star (symbol of the Sun, as well as the union of Heaven, the upper triangle, with the Earth - the lower one). Even Sergeant Howie, led with cunning to take on the role of the Fool, passes the test unscathed. However, the role he has chosen to play in this absurd tragedy is leading him inexorably to a situation from which he cannot escape.

To close the film, in the final scene the participants in the rite sing in unison "Sumer is acumen in", the oldest known medieval counterpoint, dating back to the XNUMXth century, composed in England by an unknown author. The image ofWicker Man, within which the "King for a day" is burned together with every animal species, between the festive songs of the community and the atrocious cries of the same beasts, in a holocaust without equal in the history of horror cinema, was inspired to Shaffer and Hardy from a passage of the Commentarii De Bello Gallico, Where Julius Caesar described how the Gauls used to sacrifice sacrificial victims (mostly criminals and prisoners of war) by burning them alive in huge colossi made of woven wicker branches. Shaffer described the scene as "The most alarming and impressive image I have ever seen".

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Note:

[1]Β Lewis Spence,Β The Mysteries of Britain, P. 211

[2]Β Ibid, p. 231

[3] Paul Toschi, Folklore, P. 32

[4]Β Nigel Jackson, Masks of Misrule, p. 65-6

[5] Richard Heinberg,Β The rites of the solstice, P. 122

[6]Β Mircea Eliade,Β Rites and Symbols of Initiation: the Mysteries of Birth and Rebirth, P. 25

[7] Lewis Spence,Β The Mysteries of Britain, p. 200-2


10 comments on β€œβ€œThe Wicker Man”: from folklore to folk-horror"

  1. I renew my congratulations to you all for the third time. Articles always of excellent quality. Last night, spent sleepless, I enjoyed reading this in-depth analysis of yours, which dissects one of my favorite "horror" ever. Great quotes from Nature and Organization, as well as Penda's Fen.
    I was also expecting mention of the magnificent film La Cinquième Saison, which, although recent, has, I believe, many points in common with the Wicker Man. You have the task of any further study.
    Thanks again
    Simone

    1. Hi Simone and first of all thanks for the support.
      I have not yet had the opportunity to view "The fifth season", but it is no coincidence that it was also mentioned in the comments to this article on the Facebook page. Among other things, I saw that it is by the same directors of the beautiful β€œAltiplano”, about which I wrote a few months ago here on AXIS, so I will certainly see it with great pleasure.
      Best wishes

      MM

  2. Apologizing for the spelling errors (I repeat I had just returned from a sleepless night), I await with curiosity any further information. A greeting

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