Mythology / the-green-knight
Facts about The Green Knight
- 05
Morgan le Fay's motive for sending the Green Knight to Camelot was to test the knights' virtue and frighten Guinevere.
- 04
Portrayed as entirely green in skin, clothing, and armor, the Green Knight arrives at Camelot on a green horse carrying a holly branch and an axe.
- 03
Scholars have linked the Green Knight to Celtic mythological figures such as the Irish giant Cú Roí, who features in a similar beheading challenge.
- 02
A shape-shifter and supernatural figure, the Green Knight is ultimately revealed to be Bertilak de Hautdesert, a lord transformed by the sorceress Morgan le Fay.
- 01
In Arthurian legend, the Green Knight challenges Sir Gawain to a beheading game in the 14th-century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.