Gawain is woken 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, 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 ritual 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. Shortly afterwards, the boy and two others ambush Gawain and steal the axe, girdle and horse, leaving him tied up. Gawain severs his bonds with his sword and 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 reunites her skull with her skeletal remains and the next morning finds the axe has been returned to him.