On the following day Gawaine armed himself, having first wrapped the lady’s girdle about his body, mounted his good horse, and set out for the Green Chapel, having taken an affectionate leave of the lord and lady of the castle. The lord had appointed one of his men to guide him to the place, who led him through the oak-wood, and past huge mountains with their tops all shrouded in mist, till they came to the mouth of a valley all dark and desolate. Therein, said the squire, was the Green Chapel; but he himself would go no farther, for it was the most perilous place in the world. “He who dwells there,” he said, “is full stiff and stern, and bigger than any four knights in King Arthur’s court. No man hath ever yet been to the Green Chapel whom he did not slay by a single blow of his hand. I counsel thee therefore, Sir Knight, to quit this perilous quest, and withdraw thee; and if thou dost, I swear to thee that I will never reveal it.”
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But Gawaine, bearing in mind his promise to the Green Knight, and comforted also in heart by knowing the magic power of the girdle, would not hearken to the squire, but bade him farewell, and rode on into the ravine. Long time he rode by a wild and rugged path, amid beetling rocks and huge leafless trees, but saw nothing, till at last he came where there was a great cave in the rock, and he was aware of a horrible sound, like to the sharpening of a steel blade on a grindstone, but far louder. Nothing dismayed, the knight called out, “Who dwelleth here, with whom I may hold discourse?”
A rough voice answered, bidding him abide where he was; and presently forth from the cave strode the Green Knight, with his grim head again on his shoulders, and carrying in his hand a new axe with a blade full bright and keen.
“Give thee good-morrow, Knight,” quoth he to Gawaine. “Well and truly hast thou kept thy time. Have now thy helm off, and take thy pay at once.”
“By my faith,” answered Gawaine, “I do not begrudge thee thy will.”
Then he took off his helm and bared his neck, and calmly awaited the blow. The Green Knight raised the axe, and brought it down with so much might that it hissed as it swept through the air; but he made it pass just by Gawaine, who shrank a little as it came by him. The Green Knight laughed scornfully.