ANQ, January 1st, 2003
When the Green Knight arrives at King Arthur's court, he is brandishing a holly branch in one hand and an axe in the other (206-08). (1) The axe is the very last property of the Green Knight to be elaborated upon, and it is described in great detail (208-20). Thus emphasized, it goes on to govern the action of the poem as a whole. The story begins when the Green Knight offers his axe as a gift to whoever is willing to use it to behead him (and to face a return blow in a year's time). Having taken it and beheaded the Green Knight, Gawain is told by the King to "heng up [his] axe" (477). Arthu...
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