Man in the Moon

☞ Public‐domain character. Folkloric. First literary appearance, De naturis rerum, 12th century (ca. 1190), unless ….

The Man in the Moon is, by many accounts, a man who lives on the moon or, by other accounts, more of a personification of the moon, and whose face or figure is visible from the earth. Though sources substantially disagree on his exact origin, most early ones indicate that he is a normal earthly human being who is eternally banished on the moon as a result of some unforgivable iniquity, typically thievery or working on Sunday, but sometimes said to be murder, while many later sources ignore this punishment and portray him instead as a living embodiment of the moon, even with regard to his physical attributes. He is usually portrayed as living alone in isolation, but a few sources portray him as instead being part of a lunar civilization. What few texts disclose his actual name are in disagreement, with one indicating that his name is Hubert (“huberꞇ”) and another that he is Mr. Maninmoon, while a small set of texts identify him as one biblical personage or another: Cain, Isaac, Jacob or the unnamed Israelite who is stoned to death in Numbers 15.

A few sources refer to him only as the Moon, blurring the distinction between the moon itself and the man therein, and in The Marriage of Jack and Jill, he has the name Mr. Maninmoon.

The appearance of the Man in the Moon varies greatly in the source material, depending in part on whether it is said to be his face or of his figure that is visible on earth. He is sometimes depicted merely as a full or crescent moon with a face but is also sometimes depicted as a normal man; in between those two extremes is a range of more‐or‐less humanoid interpretations with varying degrees of moonlike face. He is often depicted either carrying a drink, presumably claret, or carrying the thorn bush or bundle of sticks that originally led to his banishment, along with a lantern that is a source of moonlight. He is sometimes accompanied by his dog, which can also be seen from the earth.

He is assigned to four code points in the Unicode text standard: 🌚 (New moon with face); 🌛 (First quarter moon with face); 🌜 (Last quarter moon with face); 🌝 (Full moon with face).

Origin. The earliest texts are unanimous in saying that the Man in the Moon is an earthly human being who now lives on the moon because he has been banished as a result of some moral infraction and is visible from the earth to serve as an example to potential sinners, but these same texts disagree on his individual identity, the exact nature of his misdeed and the extent of his imposed isolation.

Some early texts are cautionary and stress the severity of the Man in the Moon’s punishment by emphasizing its long duration or his physical isolation. However, despite this, he is often depicted as quite easily observing and even communicating with people on earth. For example, in November 1904, Queen Lulea effortlessly interacts with him merely by gazing up at him and having a conversation as if he were only a short distance away (Queen Zixi of Ix). Similarly, in December 1904, the Man in the Moon, while still sitting on the moon, is close enough to the Man So Wise as to even place his hand on him while they talk (“Message to Mother Goose”).

According to one early text, the Man in the Moon lives in fear of falling to the earth (“Mon in þe Mone”); however by around 1784, when his fears are realized and he indeed tumbles from the moon to land on earth, he suffers no noteworthy ill effect. In fact, the only injury he is described as sustaining is his burning himself eating earthly food (Gammer Gurton’s Garland and others), and even that is attributed by some sources to someone else, “The man in the south” (Mother Goose’s Melodies and others). Thereafter, he is documented as visiting the earth on a number of occasions—quite frequently in fact from the latter half of the 19th century—and with relative ease, banishment notwithstanding. In 1872, for example, he has no problem visiting earth repeatedly for long intervals, so long as he returns nightly to provide the earth with moonlight (“Lumber Room”). In 1897, he visits the earth by sliding down a moonbeam (Mother Goose in Prose). He also makes an impromptu visit to the earth in May 1904 solely to help Piggy escape from prison (“Tito’s Home‐made Picture‐Book”), and as recorded in 1913, he is able to attend the wedding ceremony of Jack and Jill (Marriage of Jack and Jill).

In Egyptian mythology, the god Iah, whose name means ‘Moon’, is the deified moon, but the more prominent gods Thoth and Khonsu were lunarized and thus also became moon gods. Other Near Eastern moon gods include Kaskuh or Kusuh (Anatolian), Nanna or Sin (Mesopotamian) and Yarikh (Levantine), and the Turkic moon god is Ay Ata. The Indian moon god is Chandra. The Chinese also have Wu Gang, a man eternally punished on the moon, as well as the god Yue Lao, the Old Man Under the Moon, and the Japanese have a moon god named Tsukuyomi.

In some traditions, the beings that are visible on the moon are not the same as the moon god, but rather have been placed there by him. For example, …. In the Prose Edda, Máni takes the children Hiuki and Bil (the Norse Jack and Jill) to be eternally on the moon, and so it is they who are visible from earth rather than Máni himself. Máni is a male god in nearly every source, but in “Jack and Jill: A Scandinavian Myth,” is portrayed as a motherly female and is called “queen of the moon.” {Haida} … by the Moon …. There are a number of different tales in Maori mythology about Rona, who is sometimes portrayed as a lunar deity and sometimes as the human brought to the moon by such a deity (and is described as male in some sources and female in others). The Cook Islanders have a moon god named Marama.

Developments. Middle Ages.

16th and 17th centuries. In a source from 1660, the conjurer Exorciſta tells of knowing of a madman who believes that the Man in the Moon intends to set his thorn bush on fire in order to burn the earth (Bentivolio and Urania), but the Man in the Moon thankfully is not documented as having actually carried out this plan.

18th century. 19th century.

Public‐domain bibliography

Other.