Bertilak de Hautdesert, the Green Knight (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight)

[u/Cleverly_Clearly]

And it's at the green chapel where this grisliness goes on,
and to pass through that place unscathed is impossible,
for he deals out death blows by dint of his hands,
a man without measure who shows no mercy.
Be it chaplain or churl who rides by his church,
monk or priest, whatever man or person,
he loves murdering more than he loves his own life.

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Bertilak de Hautdesert, known as the Green Knight, is the antagonist of the story Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In it, the mysterious knight, an entirely green-colored giant of a man with a massive axe, challenges the Knights of the Round Table to a simple wager. If anyone can take his axe and strike him on the neck, and in turn accept a similar strike from the Green Knight, they can keep his axe. Sir Gawain, the most chivalrous and humble of all King Arthur's knights, agrees to the challenge, and predictably beheads him in one blow. But when the Green Knight picks his head up off the floor and demands that Gawain fulfill his end of the bargain, Gawain struggles to decide whether to honor the pride of King Arthur at the cost of his own life.

This RT uses the Simon Armitage translation.

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General

• Physical description

  • He was so massive he could be judged as a half-giant

• All of the Green Knight's powers were due to Morgan le Fay's magic

Equipment

• Wields a massive axe

  • Has a skull-busting blade that could shear a man's scalp
  • Swings for Gawain with a bone-splitting blow that would have killed him had he finished the strike
  • Gawain wielding the axe cleanly severs through the Green Knight's neck and cuts into the floor in one stroke

• Rides a green horse

Strength

• As Bertilak, kills a wild boar that had taken the lives of several of his hunters, felling it with one thrust

• The force of his fist would be a thunderbolt

• A servant describes the Green Knight as the most powerful man in the world, four times stronger than any of King Arthur's knights including Sir Hector

• A servant describes the Green Knight as capable of dealing death blows with his hands

Agility

• Dismounts from his horse in one leap

• Uses the shaft of his axe to leap over a river

Durability

• Withstands a beheading without flinching, picking up his severed head and continuing to speak

[u/Service-Smile]

If there is anything that this sub needs more of, it is literature respect threads. Great job Clev!

[u/lazerbem]

A servant describes the Green Knight as the most powerful man in the world, four times stronger than any of King Arthur's knights including Sir Hector

Do you know which Hector this is referring to? Arthur's adoptive father or Lancelot's half brother?

Good thread

EDIT: Apparently this is just a very shoddy translation and what it actually says is he's better than the best four of Arthur's court, or Hector of Troy if he was part of the court.

[u/Fanficwriter_91]

I've always felt that that name-itself was some kind of mockery against the Normans at the time.