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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a tricky poem, in the literal sense that it’s full of tricks: a rug repeatedly pulled out from under you, a magician smirking and holding up a card that you cannot entirely be sure was yours Written sometime in the late fourteenth-century by an unknown author, the poem tells the story of a ‘crystemas gomen’ (a ‘Christmas game’, in midlands-dialect Middle English) between its titular characters The Green Knight allows Sir Gawain, King Arthur’s nephew, one blow with an axe; one year later, the Knight will return the blow Gawain’s blow strikes off the Knight’s head, but the green figure simply picks up his head and rides away, telling Gawain to seek him out in the mysterious Green Chapel – location unknown – next Christmas Most of the poem deals with Gawain’s journey to find the Green Knight, particularly in the long section Gawain spends at Hautdesert, a noble castle where he is hosted by the mysterious Lord and Lady Bertilak But the poem opens with the splendour of Camelot at the height of its power and youth, before Lancelot meets Queen Guenever, before the Holy Grail, before the dark will come and swallow King Arthur’s court The poem tells us:   such glaumande gle glorious to here dere dyn vpon day daunsyng on nyȝtes al watz hap vpon heȝe in hallez and chambrez with lordez and ladies as leuest him þoȝt   The hubbub of their humour was heavenly to hear: pleasant dialogue by day and dancing after dusk, so the house and its hall were lit with happiness and lords and ladies were luminous with joy1   In the poem, Camelot burns so bright that if you can bear to turn your gaze from the merry light, you can almost see the waiting shadow it casts But in David Lowery’s 2021 film adaptation, The Green Knight, we meet a very different court Gone is the colour and cheer, and King Arthur and Queen Guenever are weary and sickly The Round Table is made from austere, milky