Arthuriana

The Knights of the Round Table, in the service of King Arthur, protect, defend, and right all wrongs in England. The land is at peace. But Morgana Le Fay, the evil sorceress, wanting to have power over the land herself and who does not want to share power with her sister Viviana the Lady of the Lake, nor with Merlin, is plotting to take down Camelot. Her agenda is to corrupt all the Knights of the Round Table, one by one. In her Castle of Night on a mountain top by the edge of a forest, Morgana uses magic to create her own Knights of the Crescent. They include the Green Knight, the Red Knight and the Black Knight. She first begins to strike back at the Round Table with Sir Gawain. Gawain is fond of food, drink, and women, but upon becoming a knight, he has sacrificed these pleasures and taken a vow of commitment to only serving King Arthur. On Christmas Eve, during a feast at the castle of Camelot, the Green Knight arrives on horseback and breaks into the castle and shows up at the feast, shocking all the court. He is a green giant whose top of his head reaches the high ceiling. He challenges Gawain to a fight. He wields a huge axe. To prove himself in front of the entire court, and the other knights, and in the presence of King Arthur and Queen Guenevere, Gawain fights the Green Knight. With his mighty sword he beheads him.

But to everyone’s horror, the Green Knight picks up his own head and is still alive, undefeated. He mounts his horse and tells Gawain that he must come to his Green Castle the following week by the tarn by the Green Chapel and Mountain there to either die at his hand or to finish the job for one more blow and the Green Knight would die. Gawain arrives at the Green Castle armed for the fight, but has been warned by Merlin and Arthur to be careful of tricks and sorcery, for the Green Knight is a product of Morgana’s dark magic. Gawain is warmly welcomed by a seemingly good old bearded lord of the castle, Bertilak, and his sexy young wife, the Lady Gwendolyn. They say that they are captives of the Green Knight who has put them under an enchantment. They cannot leave the castle or they will die and to remain alive they remain indoors. Upon the death of the Green Knight, they spell would be broken and they would be set free. Gawain promises to free them both. Later that night, as Gawain sleeps in his chamber, the lady Gwendolyn enters his room. She asks him to sleep with her and Gawain, tempted by her beauty and driven by lust, has sex with her.

The next morning, Gawain wakes up next to an infirm old woman with white hair. She says that she is the same Gwendolyn he slept with and that she was testing him if he would commit adultery with her. When Bertilak enters the room, he condemns Gawain for his betrayal of trust. Gawain, overcome with guilt and torment, runs out of the castle but as soon as he does, the Green Knight pursues him on his horse. The two men fight but this time, Gawain, who has been made physically weak with dark magic through the adultery, loses and is killed by the Green Knight. Bertilak and his wife, Gwendolyn, reveal themselves to be worshipers of the Devil and allies of Morgana, and who hope to rule Camelot together once Arthur is killed. Morgana then appears by dark magic to the castle of Camelot. She holds the severed head of Gawain and gloats over her triumph. With Gawain dead, the Round Table is down by one knight and she vows to continue to defeat the other knights. Merlin promises to fight against Morgana’s evil powers.