Middle English, anyone?
“siþen þe sege and þe assaut watz sesed at troye
þe bor3 brittened and brent to brondez and askez
þe tulk þat þe trammes of tresoun þer wro3t
watz tried for his tricherie þe trewest on erþe
hit watz ennias þe athel and his highe kynde
þat siþen depreced prouinces and patrounes bicome
welne3e of al þe wele in þe west iles
fro riche romulus to rome ricchis hym swyþe
with gret bobbaunce þat bur3e he biges vpon fyrst
and neuenes hit his aune nome as hit now hat
ticius to tuskan and teldes bigynnes
langaberde in lumbardie lyftes vp homes
and fer ouer þe french flod felix brutus
on mony bonkkes ful brode bretayn he settez
wyth wynne where werre and wrake and wonder
bi syþez hatz wont þerinne and oft boþe blysse and blunder
ful skete hatz skyfted synne…”
And so begins “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” an anonymous poem from the 14th century. The poem tells the story of one of King Arthur’s knights of the Round Table, Sir Gawain, who accepts a challenge from a mysterious warrior who is completely green.
The mysterious warrior, called the Green Knight, offers anyone a chance to strike him with an axe. The only condition is that the Green Knight be allowed to strike a return blow in “a year and a day.”
Sir Gawain accepts and chops off the Green Knight’s head in one mighty blow. To his astonishment, the Green Knight calmly picks up his severed head and reminds Sir Gawain of their next meeting.
The rest of the tale describes all the intervening adventures leading up to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight's fateful second meeting.
The Green Knight first appears in the tale when he boldly crashes one of King Arthur’s grand feasts with all the knights and ladies in attendance.
Here is how the poem describes the Green Knight:
"And he was all clad in green garments, and fitting close to his sides was a straight coat with a simple mantle above it and well lined with gay and bright furs, as was also his hood hanging about his locks and round his shoulders; and he had hosen of that same green on his calves, and bright spurs of gold, that hung down his legs upon silk borders, richly striped, where his foot rested in the stirrup.
And verily all his vesture was of pure green, both the stripings of his belt, and the stones that shone brightly in his orgeous apparel, upon silk work, on his person and saddle; and it would be too tedious to tell you even the half of such trifles as were thereon embroidered with birds and flies in gaudy greens, and ever gold in the midst. The pendants of the horse's neck-gear, the proud cropper, the ornaments, and all the metal thereof, were enamelled of green; the stirrups that he stood in of the same colour, and his saddle-bow also; and they were all glimmering and shining with green stones; and the foal on which he rode was of that same hue…"
-translated by Ian Lancashire
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Were these the first images of the Green Man?
There is no definite evidence linking the Green Man image to these early ones, but it is interesting to speculate. 
"...it seemed to me certain that it was a man and not a spirit, and moreover that it was a "Green Man." So l named it..." -Lady Raglan, 1939