I never really noticed him. He was on the side of an ancient building in a nearby village. He's been up on the wall, playing with himself, for about five centuries now.
There are lots of small details that, when you see them, suddenly cast things in a different light. This old house suddenly becomes mysterious. Why did someone put that carving there? Was he an imp? Something like a gargoyle, meant to keep the evil spirits away? The house becomes fixed in time. It's now the house built in the middle ages. The wood came from trees that grew in the fourteenth century. The man that carved that statue would never believe what sights the statue would see, perched up on the wall overlooking the church square.
Just below him is a bar / cafe, where people sit outside on sunny days and sip their coffee and their beer. To his right is the church, and although it hasn't changed much since it was built, the cars parked around it are nothing like the transportation the woodcarver knew. Airplanes fly overhead.
Will he still be there five hundred years from now? And if so, I wonder what he'll see?
7 comments:
Wee man! That's such a good name for him! lol!
Thanks Bonita!
Sam
There's a lot of interesting grotesques from the medieval period, but you have to wonder about the story behind this one!
A little menneken piss - how did that Flemish guy make it to France? If the influence is there, and the wee man isn't just the weird idea of a French carver who wanted to piss off the priest of the church.
Is it just me or do I see some huge coconuts below Wee Mans hands?
I envy you the history you have access to. I would be in 7th heaven. you do realize that you MUST write a story now about the spirit of the woodcarver that watches over the village disgused as an unassuming carving on the side of a house.
Heyya Sam - popping by from December's blog. I just finished posting a Cernunnos image on my blog this morning and your guy bares (no pun intended) a resemblance. Can't quite tell if those ARE curved horns coming out of the top of his head or just where the relief has broken away partially. France, huh? It could be Old Staggy himself.
PS - LOVE your writing.
He's so cute. And I agree, I could look at stuff like that for hours thinking about what the world was like when he was carved, what the people were like, what he saw...
What a curious little creature. Wouldn't it be fascinating to know the reason why he's there? Perhaps it's just so you can write a story about him?
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