Feeling the Fear

As Gawain rides towards the Green Chapel, the sound of someone grinding a huge axe rings through the silent snowy landscape and signals that this is where he may expect to be beheaded. The Green Knight welcomes him, praises him for keeping his promise to receive in his turn the blow he dealt his opponent a year ago in Arthur's court, yet also urges Gawain not to struggle or argue. With a wisecrack – once his head is off he can't restore it – the hero promises to stand still and bares his neck: ‘And lette as he noȝt dutte / For drede he wolde not dare’ (He behaved as if he did not fear at all, he would not cower for dread). Gawain, it is suggested, dreads the axe, even if he will not show it. As the Green Knight swings the huge blade, Gawain sees it coming:

And who wouldn't shrink from a blow like this? Even today, a modern reader can share Gawain's anxiety, the tension in the shoulders, and perhaps even his instinctive movement. The text builds up the suspense in this scene in a simple yet very effective way, unobtrusively presenting the emotions of the hero, moving the audience from feeling curious about what will happen next to sharing Gawain's fear.

When this story is told to children, they very much enjoy the scariness of the beheading. It is never hard to find a volunteer Gawain when the beheading scene (two near misses and one soft touch) is enacted in the classroom; in one session, the tale-teller actually spent quite some time after the performance ‘beheading’ a whole line of young spectators, all of whom wanted to see and feel the axe swooshing towards their necks, just like Gawain.