Alternate Ending of The Green Knight

By Jordan Witham

Chapter I: Divulgence 

The green chapel stands broken but lush. Crumbled walls and cracked stone, all covered in thick green vines and flowers. The yellow sunlight barely illuminates the chapel as Gawain stands kneeling before the Green Knight. 

“Is this really all there is?” Gawain asks the knight, fear evident in his tone. 

“What else ought there be?” The Green Knight replies, raising the ax to strike Gawain. 

The Green Knight swings and Gawain pulls his eyes shut and holds his breath tight. The Green Knight swings, metal striking its target, crushing bone and slicing through skin and muscle. A flash of pain encompasses Gawain’s left arm as he exhales his tightly held breath with a scream of pain and surprise. The force of the strike causing Gawain to fall to his right side. The knight stands over Gawain as he seethes in agony and confusion.

“You missed!” Gawain angrily pushes the words through his clenched teeth as he stares up at the towering knight. 

“You forget, my boy, that this is only a game” the knight says, Gawain’s mother’s voice coming from their mouth. The knight grabs the green girdle and holds it out to Gawain as he stares back, eyes wide.

“I don’t understand,” Gawain spouts to the knight as he continues clutching his arm. The knight closes the distance between them and lifts Gawain up to his feet, wrapping the green girdle around him. Both stare at the stump halfway down Gawain’s forearm as the gushing of blood halts. 

“Now that your wound will not kill you, I will explain all” the Knight says to Gawain, still using his mother’s voice. 

“You are not a Knightly son, and a fool to think I don’t know where you go off to most nights. I devised a plan to force you into knighthood, I knew my brother would want you by his side in my stead and that he would ask you for a story. I created this Green Knight to challenge you, to force you to see death and after see life as more than pleasure. But you, in your infinite stupidity cut off the knight’s head. I have done many things, but I will not kill my only son.” The Knight’s form then changes to that of Gawain’s mother. 

“I failed the challenge…” Gawain proclaims in a depressed tone of voice. 

“No, you performed past all of my expectations. You continued your search for the green chapel when most would deem the journey impossible. You faced death, of course with fear, but no sane man is truly absent of fear.” After she finishes speaking, both stand there in silence, thoughts brewing in both heads on what to say next.  

“I guess I ought to return home then,” Gawan proclaims nervously, kicking a rock down the steps as he turns his gaze to the now setting sun, the light breaching the chapel now waning, its yellow hue becoming more and more dim. 

“I will wait for you there, you will be welcomed back as a true Knight” Gawain’s mother says to her son, as her body shines bright, turns to fireflies and is gone as each firefly flies in different directions. Gawain stares at the empty, vine covered throne as fireflies fly around and past his face. He turns around, silently leaving the chapel and boarding his canoe, lit by a torch he did not remember lighting, or even having in the first place. Dark, soft waves spin behind Gawain’s dugout canoe, the torch illuminating only a few feet past his bow. Gawain has no idea exactly where he is going, relying on his instincts to guide his craft left or right to his destination. Eventually out of the darkness trees and then a shoreline appear and his craft gently beaches itself on the soft, muddy waterside. He departs the dugout canoe and does not walk far before a noise breaks the silence. He stops, instinctively moving his left arm to his right hip to remove his sword, only to remember he does not have a left hand. He peers into the dark forest towards the sound, suddenly a fox emerges from the void and looks up at him, tilting its head left in a slight grin. 

Chapter II: Retribution

The two travel together for several days, eating, sleeping and even hunting together. Gawain is able to wrap his stump so it may heal better with leaves and any piece of cloth he can spare to cut from his own tunic. He struggles to relearn how to hunt even small animals with just one usable arm  . Eventually the two come upon a caravan trail and follow it to a tavern. The tavern reminds Gawain of St. Winifred’s homestead, a classically built wooden structure, making use of stone only for the foundation. 

Inside there are few patrons, most wearing skins and pelts, easily identifiable as hunters. But one patron catches Gawain’s attention, a heavier man in the corner, wearing a large gray wolf skin coat. Underneath the coat Gawain can see a red silk shirt, this man is of nobility, maybe he can tell me where I am, and how I can return to Camelot Gawain thinks to himself. Gawain walks up to the bar and struggles to extract a rabbit skin pelt from his pack. Once the pelt is out of his bag he quickly trades it for a drink and makes his way to the man. Gawain approaches the man, standing behind the chair on the opposite side of their table. 

“I am Sir Gawain of Camelot, may I sit with thee?” Gawain asks the man, trying to show subtle respect and customs. The man lifts his head, his long, shaggy beard and heaven heading beard remind Gawain of a boar. 

“Ah… Sir Gawain. I had heard you were searching for the green chapel, did you ever find it?” The man asks in a deep, raspy voice as his eyes meet Gawain’s. Gawain’s skin shivers and his stump throbs harder in response to this eye contact. 

“Oh pardon me for not answering your question brave knight, you may sit with me!” The man says half laughing at himself, the stench of ale slipping from his lips and crawling up Gawain’s nose. Gawain sits across from the man, and takes a sip from his drink, squinting in surprise to its potency. 

“I have in fact found the chapel, and I am on my way home, this has been a momentous journey for me” he says with honesty as the man grins widely and takes another sip of his drink. 

“Oh tell me a story, would you? My brave knight? Would you do me this favor?” The man playfully pleads as he leans back in his chair.

“I have seen many things, most being unexplainable, but one has stood out to me,” Gawain says to the man. 

“Oh do tell me,” the man responds with excitement.

“Halfway through my journey to the chapel, I came upon an empty house. I was so tired I fell into its ownerless bed and fell fast asleep. However, I was awoken by a spirit who called itself St. Winifred.” Gawain tells the man, with surprise he sees the man’s smile turn to a sharp frown at the mention of St. Winifred’s name. 

“And what was your reaction to such a frightful encounter?” He asks, in a much more serious tone of voice. 

“She questioned me, and then asked of me a favor. She explained to me how a lord had cut off her head after she refused his advances. This lord threw her head into a pond and she could not get it, she asked me to get her head for her. And so I did,” Gawain says nervously, taking a long sip from his drink while staring back at the visibly angered man. 

“I’ve heard enough of this tall tale, knight” the man says, his eyes wide with pure hatred and discomfort. 

“I meant no offense good sir, but I speak truth. This girl, I had to put to re-”

Before Gawain can finish the man jumps to his feet and flips the table onto him.

“What madness is this?” Gawain screams as he pushes the heavy wooden table off of himself only to scream in agony as a boot comes down on his right arm.

“You foolish Knight! She had it comin-” the man also not able to finish his words as a fox flies through a window and latches itself onto his neck. Patrons flee the building as the man struggles with the fox, trying in vain to wretch it off of himself. The fox bites and claws at the man’s face, his creams of anger and agony filling the space. 

Gawain, now with his right arm free, quickly gets to his feet and struggles to pull his sword from its sheath on his right hip with his right hand. The man finally rips the fox off of himself and throws it at a stack of ale bottles, sending most to the ground in a loud crash. Gawain looks at the man, blood oozing from his left eye and his face covered in scratch marks. Gawain points his sword at the man as he pulls a shorter sword from a concealed sheath under his now bloody wolfskin coat. 

“I have killed many of you so-called Knights in my exile, you won’t be any different” he says with a bloody grin.

“I am not an average Knight” Gawain responds.

“Of course not! You put that bitch to rest and you only got one arm! Killing you will be fun!” The man says as he starts approaching Gawain, causing Gawain to tense up. Gawain pulls his sword back and thinks to himself. 

“You are a man of the devil, you deserve the same hell he resides in!” Gawain yells these words at the man, the man’s response is but a slight smirk. Gawain knows he has only a few seconds to think of what to do. He thinks to himself; What the hell am I gonna do? I have only one usable hand and a sword meant for two. Wielding it will be difficult, also his axe gives him an advantage in close combat. But he will expect me to go on the defensive. if I quickly go on the offensive I might throw him off. Which could give me a chance to disarm or strike him down. I would need to put all my effort into thrusting my sword forward with my arm as hard as I can. Gawain wastes no time, charging at wolf skinned killer with as much speed as he can muster. To his delight the man does in fact falter, being surprised by this offensive strategy. Gawain thrusts his sword forward with all his might, striking the man in the left shoulder as the man tries to strike him with the ax in his right hand. The man strikes too slowly, accidentally hitting the sword causing it to dislodge itself from his shoulder and fall down with force onto his gut, cutting his gut as well. Gawain pulls his now bloody sword back to evaluate his strike. The man staggers back, his wolf skin coat now more red than gray as blood oozes from his shoulder and the cut on his stomach. I cannot believe that worked. I thought for sure he would react faster than me. Or that he would be able to block and punch me with his other hand. If he had done that, I would have no way to block. Besides that, I need to finish this monster once and for all! Gawain does not let the man gather himself, he charges him once again. 

Everything slows down as he charges, in Gawain’s peripheral vision he can see that the fox is alright. This comforts Gawain as he focuses on the man in front of him. The man is hurt but still holds onto his ax tightly as he tries to block. Gawain’s sword this time strikes right in the center of the man’s torso. Time slows down once again, this time to a complete stop. Gawain and the man both look at Gawain’s sword, now deep into the man’s chest. With a swift pull the sword leaves the man’s chest, followed by a waterfall of deep red blood. Gawain stands over the man, sweat from his forehead dripping into his eyes. The bones and muscles in his right arm and hand burn from overexertion. 

“Well that conversation could have ended better,” Gawain proclaims as the bartender peeks up from behind the bar. 

“What the hell was that? Where in hell do you come from?” The man speaks with fear and anger, looking over the now trashed room. Gawain does not know how to answer, he has no proof the man killed St. Winifred. He doesn’t even know the man’s name. He also has no money to pay for the damages. Gawain looks around, his eyes drawn to the fox. He bolts for it, dropping his sword in the process. Gawain lifts up the fox, eyes the exit and runs out of the building. 

Chapter I: Trekking Whence 

Tired feat clamor over the forest’s dirt floor. Gawain still has not looked back. He doesn’t know why, but he could not stop running. He still holds the fox, it was injured during the fight but not badly. The orange and white animal sleeps in Gawain’s grasp. It’s back held by his right hand and it’s head propped up by his left forearm, right before it ends. He stops and stares at his left forearm. He thinks to himself; I never thought I’d lose my own arm. I always took it for granted, this is something that will take me years to get accustomed to. But I must focus on getting myself home. His thoughts end as the fox’s eyes slowly open and the small creature’s head tilts up to lock its eyes with Gawain’s. 

“I give you my thanks for giving me care, young Gawain” the fox says in a low, raspy but comforting voice. Gawain does not quite know what to say back. 

“No problem at all… fox, I would like to thank you for saving me” Gawain shyly says, looking out into the forest. 

“You are strong, smart and brave. You defeated that man because you knew you would have to rely not just on your strength, but your mind too. I cannot wait to watch you grow and become smarter and stronger” the fox said with a happy tone.

“What do you mean?” Gawain asked the creature, perplexed. 

“Your mother has abilities, she conjured the Green Knight of course. You are her offspring, her only offspring. You have her abilities too which is why I, your familiar, will be watching over you to make sure you learn and use your abilities properly” 

The End 

I have always liked daydreaming about alternate endings to things I watch, read and see. Writing this was a great opportunity to dust off my rusty creative writing skills. I haven’t done a complete short story with a proper beginning and ending since high school. Before this story, I had never written a fight scene before and I think I did a fine job. I could not approach this like a normal battle because Gawain only has one arm in the story. I think this story is a fine addition to literature, it is an alternate telling of a movie which is an alternate telling of an ancient poem. I have as much a right to write this as the writers for the movie did. But besides that, my story also shows more of Gawain’s immaturity in that he runs out of the bar, not giving the bartender an explanation for the fight or any money to repair the bar. Gawain is a young adult, and I wanted to show him as an imperfect person, even though he is deserving of the title of Knight. I also add a caring side to him in how he treats the injured fox and thanks it for saving him during the fight. The reason I chose to have him lose an arm is because I am fascinated with the concept of limb loss. Because it causes the character to struggle both physically and mentally with the loss. One of the many books that inspired me to write about limb loss was a book I read in high school called The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen. This book is about a girl who is part of a track team, but loses her leg in a school bus accident which also results in the death of one of her track teammates. The story describes her life right after the accident, detailing her recovery and her having to get used to having one leg and getting prosthetics. The book deals a lot with the main character having to come to terms with the fact that their leg is gone, and not coming back. So in my alternate ending I am not giving Gawain’s a prosthetic or magic hand replacement. He just has to deal with not having a left hand. The biggest inspiration for this story was the ending of the original poem. In the original poem it is revealed that the Green Knight was actually the lord of the castle Gawain stays at right before he gets to the green chapel in disguise. I took this and changed it to actually being Gawain’s mother in disguise. The third and final inspiration for my alternate ending of the Green Knight is the 2021 film of the same name, because that is how I first came upon the story. To be honest with you I don’t know what else to say, maybe thank you? Thank you for helping me get back into writing larger stuff like this. I really do miss being able to force my dad to read my stories. I decided to end the story with the revelation that the fox is in fact Gawain’s familiar because I wanted to connect his mother’s abilities to him. In the movie she practices witchcraft but Gawain doesn’t seem to know anything about it. So I decided that it would make more sense to have the story end with Gawain learning of his abilities and setting out to understand and eventually use them. Also I liked depicting Gawain having some smarts to him. He understands he cannot win a battle with just strength, so he has to use his mind as well.

Van Draanen, Wendelin. The Running Dream. 2023. Random House Publishing Group, 2012.

Wikipedia Contributors. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Oct. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Gawain_and_the_Green_Knight. Accessed 19 Oct. 2023.

A24. “The Green Knight | Official Trailer HD | A24.” YouTube, 11 May 2021, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS6ksY8xWCY. Accessed 19 Oct. 2023.