The Adventures of Sir Gawain the True (2 page)

"I didn't want her to get the wrong idea, you see."

"And I gather that you told her your name but never asked for hers?"

Sir Gawain blinked. The king was right. He had no idea who the lady was.

"And then," King Arthur concluded, "you rode away, leaving her alone, on foot, in the forest?"

For a moment, Sir Gawain was silent. "I didn't think about that," he admitted, frowning. "That wasn't ... wasn't my best choice, was it?"

King Arthur shook his head.

"I
did
say 'You're welcome,'" Sir Gawain said. "'Very welcome,' I think."

King Arthur covered his eyes with his hands. Sometimes in those early days he wondered what it would take to prove to his knights that courtesy was as important as courage.

Several months after Sir Gawain the Undefeated overcame the dragon, the knight faced a new and very different sort of challenge. It happened at King Arthur's Christmas feast.

Now, there may be some who think they've been to Christmas feasts, but the truth is that unless they've been to one of King Arthur's feasts, they really don't know what they're talking about. Never before or since have there been grander yuletide banquets. King Arthur's feasts lasted for seven days—from Christmas right up to New Year's—and every evening was more magnificent than the evening before. There were so many luscious foods at his feasts that it would be cruel to describe them. King Arthur's cooks were like kitchen magicians. It is said that Brussels sprouts prepared by King Arthur's chefs tasted better than custard pies prepared by anyone else.

Their recipe for Brussels sprouts has, alas, been lost.

But the feast was more than just the food. Every evening there was a different entertainment for the court, each astounding in its own way. One night, the lightest and most agile acrobats ever seen flipped themselves and tossed each other about the banquet hall with uncanny ease. Another evening, a French musician sang ballads of romance, and so touching was his performance that everyone at court fell in love with someone for as long as the music lasted. (Don't worry; they all got better afterward.) There were side-splittingly funny jesters and grippingly suspenseful storytellers, and on the last night of the feast there performed a famous juggler named Launfal the Light-fingered who was so deft that he could juggle five sleeping cats without waking even one.

It was during Launfal's act that adventure arrived at Camelot. Just as the juggler launched the cats, there came a scream from the kitchen, followed a second later by a deafening crash of breaking dishes. Then the kitchen doors burst open, and into the banquet hall rode a huge knight on a monstrous steed, and both horse and rider were as green as the grass in May.

Ladies screamed and knights leaped to their feet, grabbing for their weapons, which they didn't

actually have, since one doesn't generally arm oneself for a Christmas feast. Launfal the Light-fingered's cats awoke with a chorus of angry squalls and began grabbing with their claws at anything that was near, which was mostly Launfal. The Green Knight stopped in front of King Arthur's table, his fierce eyes gazing, unblinking, about the room. He took a breath and opened his mouth to speak.

"Please excuse me," he said. "I didn't mean to cause such a stir. Am I interrupting?"

"Er, yes," replied the king, rising to his feet, "I suppose you are, a bit. This is our Christmas feast."

"A thousand pardons," said the Green Knight, "but I was looking for King Arthur."

"I am King Arthur."

"Excellent!" the Green Knight exclaimed, dismounting. "I've come to bring you some entertainment."

"Well," said the king, "as it happens, when you arrived we were watching this juggler."

"What, that fellow with the cats in his hair? That's what you call entertainment? It's a good thing I came when I did. I bring a merry little game to amuse—"

But the Green Knight got no further. At that moment rose one of King Arthur's knights, a skilled fighter who had never been overcome by any knight except Sir Gawain and who was called Sir Gandefere the Nearly Undefeated. Sir Gandefere broke abruptly into the conversation, shouting, "Who do you think you are? You can't just barge into the king's feast like this!" Walking around his table, Sir Gandefere stepped bravely up to the Green Knight. "Why don't you go back where you—?"

Sighing softly, the Green Knight brought his fist down on Sir Gandefere's head, like a hammer. Sir Gandefere crumpled to the floor. The Green Knight said, "Your knights are very brave, O king. But it's rude to speak when someone else is talking, you know. As I was saying, I bring a game, a test of knightly arts. Is there a knight here who would take on a little challenge?"

At once, two knights leaped to their feet: Sir Reynold the Brave and Sir Gawain the Undefeated. "Sire!" they called at once. "Let me! Let me!"

The Green Knight looked at them. "And what are your names, O knights?"

Sir Reynold and Sir Gawain told the Green Knight their names and titles.

The uncanny visitor smiled, showing gleaming light green teeth. "Sir Gawain the Undefeated! Excellent!" he said. "I have heard of you. They say that you can stand before any knight and match him blow for blow."

"So can I!" said Sir Reynold.

"I do my best," murmured Sir Gawain, trying to look modest.

The Green Knight didn't even look at Sir Reynold. "Then you are perfect for my game, Sir Gawain, because that's all you have to do."

"I beg your pardon?" asked Sir Gawain.

"Trade blows," explained the Green Knight. "First you strike me; then I strike you."

Sir Gawain hesitated, glancing at the senseless form of Sir Gandefere lying at the knight's feet.

"Gawain," said King Arthur, "perhaps it would be best not to play this particular game."

"Then let me!" begged Sir Reynold.

"I'm not afraid," announced Sir Gawain. "I've never turned down a challenge, and I won't begin now! I'll play this game with you. I swear it!"

King Arthur frowned, but the strange knight only showed his green smile again. "Then we're agreed," he said. With that he reached behind him and drew a long, wicked axe from his horse's saddle.

"Um, with an axe?" asked Sir Gawain.

"You promised," the Green Knight reminded him, handing him the weapon and kneeling at his feet. "Go on, then. Right on the neck."

Sir Gawain didn't move. "It's just that I was thinking of something less drastic. You know, fisticuffs."

"Do King Arthur's knights keep their vows or not?" the Green Knight demanded.

"I would!" said Sir Reynold, under his breath.

Sir Gawain sighed, then said, "Right, then. Sorry about this." With a single swift blow, he drove the axe blade down, cutting the Green Knight's head neatly from his shoulders.

Most of the knights and ladies looked away from the sprawled, headless body. King Arthur shook his head slowly. "And he called this a
game?
" he muttered.

"Odd sort of game," Sir Gawain agreed. "I didn't have any fun at all, and as for this fellow, I can't imagine that he enjoyed himself any more than..."

Sir Gawain trailed off. At his feet, the Green Knight's body had begun to move. It pushed itself up with its arms, then groped about until it located its detached head. Then, head in hands, the green body rose to its feet. The head's eyes flickered open, and it grinned its green smile.

"Well struck, Sir Gawain," said the head. "Now I get a turn. But no hurry. Shall we say one year from tonight? Next New Year's Day, you meet me at my home. It's called the Green Chapel, and you should have no trouble finding it."

With that, the Green Knight took his axe from Sir Gawain, leaped into his horse's saddle, and rode from the court.

After the Green Knight had gone, the knights and ladies of the court agreed that their New Year's visitor had been a sorcerer. Who but a powerful enchanter could ride away with his head tucked under one arm? Privately, the knights and ladies agreed on something else, too: Sir Gawain, who was
not
a sorcerer and was
not
able to get about with a separated head, was doomed. Consequently, there was great sadness at Camelot.

This sadness included Sir Gawain, of course. He knew better than anyone that when the Green Knight struck his neck, he would not survive. He considered not going to the Green Chapel at all, but only for a moment. He had taken a vow, after all, and Sir Gawain always kept his vows. But he did spend a good deal of time wondering why he had taken such a foolish vow to begin with. For the first time in his life, Sir Gawain wondered if living up to his reputation as "Sir Gawain the Undefeated" was as important as he'd thought.

Only King Arthur refused to give up hope. If one enchanter could survive beheading, then perhaps another enchanter could help Sir Gawain do the same. "We will seek help from Merlin!" he announced. Merlin was the powerful enchanter who had helped Arthur become king.

"But Merlin left England after you were crowned," Gawain pointed out.

"So he did," the king conceded. "But you never can tell about sorcerers. I haven't said anything to the court, but in recent months reports have come of a powerful enchanter living in the north. Perhaps this is Merlin himself, returned to England. I will go at once to seek his counsel. Who will go with me?"

All the knights of the Round Table said that they would go, and so it was that two days later, the king and his knights set out on the Great North Road. The sky was heavy and gray when the party left, and it grew darker each day they traveled, but the king refused to let the threatening snow delay their journey. When the snow started on the fourth day, though, he began to wonder if he'd been entirely wise. It fell so thickly that the knights could hardly see their hands before their faces. Soon the party was hopelessly lost. The king called for all to dismount and tie ropes between them so that no one got separated