Synopsis
Gawain is awakened on Christmas morning in a brothel by his lover, a common woman named Essel. He returns to Camelot and, following a scolding by his mother (not identified by name but implied to be Morgan le Fay), attends a feast at the Round Table with his uncle King Arthur, who invites Gawain to his side. In a tower, le Fay performs a magic rite which summons the mysterious Green Knight,[6] who barges into Arthur's court and states that any knight able to land a blow on him will win his green axe but must travel to the Green Chapel the following Christmas and receive an equal blow in return. Gawain takes up the challenge. The Knight yields and Gawain, wielding Excalibur, decapitates him. The Knight rises and lifts his severed head, reminds Gawain of the bargain and leaves.
Gawain spends a year revelling before Arthur reminds him to uphold his end of the challenge. Gawain departs on horseback for the Green Chapel, taking the green axe and a green girdle made by his mother, who claims that no harm will come to him so long as he wears it. During his journey, Gawain meets a boy scavenging a battlefield littered with dead warriors. The boy directs Gawain to a stream that will lead him to the Green Chapel. He asks for payment and Gawain gives him a single coin. Shortly afterwards, the boy and two others ambush Gawain and steal the axe, girdle and horse, leaving him tied up. Gawain scrambles to his sword and uses it to cut the ropes binding his hands and then pursues them. By nightfall, Gawain arrives at an abandoned cottage and falls asleep in the bed. He is awakened by the ghost of a young woman named Winifred, who asks Gawain to retrieve her head from a nearby spring. He asks what he will receive in return but is rebuffed. He reunites her skull with her skeletal remains and the next morning finds the axe has been returned to him.
Gawain befriends a fox who accompanies him on his journey. He reaches a castle inhabited by a Lord who informs him that the Green Chapel is nearby, and Gawain accepts his invitation to stay. The Lord's lady, who resembles Essel, makes seductive overtures towards Gawain. The Lord proposes they exchange what he obtains while hunting with whatever Gawain finds at the castle. The next morning, the Lady presents Gawain with the green girdle, which she claims to have made herself. Gawain accedes to her advances in exchange for it. Gawain flees and encounters the Lord in the forest. The Lord kisses Gawain in return for his Lady's actions, but Gawain does not give him the girdle. The Lord reveals that he has captured Gawain's fox and releases it. Gawain reaches a stream where a boat is waiting. The fox speaks, imploring Gawain to abandon the quest. Gawain takes the boat to the chapel, where the Knight is seated in hibernation. Gawain waits through the night, and the Green Knight awakens on Christmas morning.
As the Knight swings the axe Gawain flinches and is chided by the Knight. He kneels for the blow again but at the last m