Gentlemen, i would hate to see us go off on a wild "green man" chase here much as we did with the "satanic dagger" posted some time back (Esmerelda and Notre Dame). Certainly there is no denying that the origins of the Green Man are a pagan one, but again, let me remind you all just how much the image has been used again and again throughout the British Isles in
Christian iconography in churches. There is no parody in purpose for it's use in the architectural elements of some of England's classic churches.
http://www.google.com/images?q=green...w=1417&bih=689
Furthermore the Green Man plays an important role in Arthurian Legend, which, of course, we can find much paganism in, though it clearly was given renewed interest and attention in the Gothic Revival from which most of us seem to think this dagger originates from. Therefore i find nothing to support that this was ever intended to be a "pagan" blade, athame or otherwise.
Fearn is also indeed correct that an athame is specifically a
double-edged blade so this clearly does not qualify.
Would a neo-pagan or Wiccan today find this blade of interest. Undoubtably! I know i find it interesting and desirable. But then, i assume that many of you are not Wiccan or neo-pagan and you also find it interesting. So i don't think we can look to a well-off Wiccan as the reason this dagger sold for this price. Besides, though interested in it, no Wiccan would use a triple edged blade as an athame. This blade commanded this price for the same reason it commands our attention here. It is beautiful, unusual and well crafted. And allusions that we make to it having a pagan origin is pure unsupported conjecture. Though i equally have no proof to show it is not the case i believe that a logical examination of the interests of the Gothic Revival times and the art it produced should be enough of an explanation for the themes carved upon this dagger.
