WARNING. This post is going to be full of AMAZING words. Oh and also medieval carved stone lady genitals.

Sheela-na-gig is fun to say AND fun to see. If you have never heard of one before, you are in for a treat! Just knowing that these are a thing makes the world and our medieval ancestors seem so much more light-hearted and amusing.

Ladies and Gentlemen: This, is a Sheela-na-gig.

Look at her little face! And her… Well yes.

This is probably the most famous sheela-na-gig. She is on Kilpeck Church near Hereford.

A sheela-na-gig is a carving of a woman displaying her oversized genitalia, sometimes by pulling her vulva open with her hands, and pulling a silly/uncomfortable face. Of course, if you were doing this you would also probably be pulling a silly/uncomfortable face.

A sheela-na-gig is a type of hunky-punk or grotesque. Hunky-punks (or grotesques) are essentially stone carvings on the outside of a church, which are not gargoyles because they do not act as a water spout attached to gutters etc. “Hunky-punks” are more fun to say, so I am going to use that term.

Want to see another one? Of course you do.

Same kind of idea, but differently ridiculous. This one is from the Parish Church of Oaksey, Wiltsure.

And another?

This one is from the Parish Church of Llandrinod Wells. It is exceptionally well preserved because it was found face down in the church yard, so it has not been exposed. Not in an “erosion” sense anyway.

Sheela-na-gigs appear on churches all over the Ireland, Britain, and in smaller numbers through the rest of Europe.

We always think of historical Christians being extremely private about nudity and sexuality. So why are there so many of these shameless exhibitionists all over our medieval churches?

 

It turns out that the reason we find them so strange is because of our post-Victorian understanding of “what is proper” and in fact there are plenty of other medieval hunky-punks which are equally irreverent.

Check out this testicle-licker, for example.

But there are many other theories: they are symbols of fertility; they are meant to warn you away from lust (with their terrifying smiling cheeky faces); they are pagan Goddesses which the local people still wanted in their place of worship; they protect us from evil; they demonstrate the importance of motherhood; they counterpart the green man.

Sheela-na-gigs are often depicted by, or over, doorways. People often interpret this as a symbolic association of a woman protecting her “sacred opening”. Also, women’s genitals are often depicted as an archway or two archways in historical art, so it could be that a sheela-na-gig being over the arched doorway into the church functions as a sort of pun.

Whatever their significance, they make us rethink our assumptions about people in the past, and the very 2D understanding we have of their beliefs. We will probably never really have a better understanding of these hunky-punks (barring the invention of time travel), and maybe they really had very little significance at all, but they are still fun to look at and interesting to think about.

So anyway. That’s a sheela-na-gig. An irreverent, funny face-pulling statue flashing its massive gaping vulva at all the world, from church. It goes to show it’s really worth looking at the carvings and decorations on the buildings around us because you never know what you might see.

 

PS: not a sheela-na-gig, but also on Kilpeck Church there are lots of other fun hunky-punks. Look how cute this dog and hare are!

 

 

Sources

Want to find out more about sheela-na-gigs?

Images of Lust: Sexual Carvings on Medieval Churches, James Jerman and Anthony Weir. (London 1993)

“The Sheela Na Gig, An Incongruous Sign of Sexual Purity?” Juliette Dor, Medieval Virginities, Ed. Ruth Evans, Sarah Salih, Anke Bernau, (Toronto 2003)

Apotropaia and Fecundity in Eurasian Myth and Iconography: Erotic Female Display Figures, Miriam Robbins Dexter and Victor H. Mair (Los Angeles)

http://www.sheelanagig.org/wordpress/

http://www.knowth.com/sheela-na-gig.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheela_na_gig

http://www.sheelanagig.org/wordpress/kilpeck/