Suibhne - I had a look at the Green Man blog you mentioned. Very interesting. Your comments in it are quite right, in my view. The Cartmel Green Man story was initially presented in such a way as to appear to be a real legend, and it was only with the challenges posed in your replies that the OP admitted to mucking about with the story with the excuse of making it more colourful.

Nothing wrong with that - but only if he'd prefaced his tale with that time-honoured phrase "Once upon a time..." - the distinguishing point between the passing on of a legend and the telling of a fictional tale.