Then the Green Knight drew off from him, and leaned on his axe, setting
the shaft on the ground, and looked on Gawain as he stood all armed and
faced him fearlessly—at heart it pleased him well. Then he spake merrily
in a loud voice, and said to the knight, “Bold sir, be not so fierce, no
man here hath done thee wrong, nor will do, save by covenant, as we made
at Arthur’s court. I promised thee a blow and thou hast it—hold thyself
well paid! I release thee of all other claims. If I had been so minded I
might perchance have given thee a rougher buffet. First I menaced thee
with a feigned one, and hurt thee not for the covenant that we made in
the first night, and which thou didst hold truly. All the gain didst
thou give me as a true man should. The other feint I proffered thee for
the morrow: my fair wife kissed thee, and thou didst give me her
kisses—for both those days I gave thee two blows without scathe—true
man, true return. But the third time thou didst fail, and therefore
hadst thou that blow. For ’tis my weed thou wearest, that same woven
girdle, my own wife wrought it, that do I wot for sooth. Now know I well
thy kisses, and thy conversation, and the wooing of my wife, for ’twas
mine own doing. I sent her to try thee, and in sooth I think thou art
the most faultless knight that ever trode earth. As a pearl among white
peas is of more worth than they, so is Gawain, i’ faith, by other
knights. But thou didst lack a little, Sir Knight, and wast wanting in
loyalty, yet that was for no evil work, nor for wooing neither, but
because thou lovedst thy life—therefore I blame thee the less.”