Play Book Tag discussion

It is Christmas in the court of King Arthur and all of the knights and ladies of the round table are feasting and making merry, as they do. Suddenly a huge green man appears and issues a challenge to King Arthur's court; a knight can strike one blow at the green man (I'd like to say green giant but that has commercial connotations) who will not defend himself and then, a year later, the knight must present himself at the green man's court and receive a blow in return. King Arthur initially accepts the challenge but Sir Gawain convinces him that Arthur is too valuable to lose, as any of them surely would be killed by the giant, and so Gawain takes his place and strikes the blow, knocking the green man's head clean off his body. To everyone's amazement the green man picks up his head, gets back on his horse, tells Sir Gawain to meet him at the Green Chapel in a year's time and then rides away.

Sir Gawain is the purest and most honourable knight and so, when autumn arrives he sets out in his finest armour to find the Green Chapel and meet his fate.

I hope it isn't cheating to review this here when I read it for another group? I understand that there are various translations available for this poem and it was very interesting to read the notes in my version which explained why the rhythm of the original can't be translated into modern English and what is known, and more interestingly, what isn't known about the author and the setting.

The poem itself is an interesting read as long as you remember the time it was written. The passages about the hunting of animals is a bit gruesome today and of course there is the almost obligatory whining about the wicked machinations of women trying to corrupt good men through the ways of love etc etc. Other than that it was a good read.