The Green Knight’s Severed Head
A record in The Hawthorn Archive, preserving folklore with its place, type and source context attached.
In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the visitor’s survival after decapitation transforms what initially resembles a dangerous courtly game into an encounter with the marvellous. The Green Knight lifts his head and directs Gawain to seek him out a year later.
The scene establishes the problem at the heart of the poem: a promise has been made in public, and its fulfilment will require a journey into uncertainty. It also prevents the reader from interpreting the challenger as an ordinary opponent in a tournament.
Evidence: literary episode in a surviving Middle English manuscript. The episode is not evidence of a historical practice. Source trail: British Library, Cotton MS Nero A X; critical editions of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.