127. _þat chekke hit bytyde_, 'which destruction befall!' _þat... hit_ =
'which'. _chekke_ refers to the checkmate at chess.
135. Had we not Chaucer's Miller and _The Reeves Tale_, the vividness
and intimacy of the casual allusions would show the place of the
flour-mill in mediaeval life. Havelok drives out his foes
_So dogges ut of milne-hous;_
and the Nightingale suggests as fit food for the Owl
_one frogge
Þat sit at mulne vnder cogge._
These are records of hours spent by the village boys amid the noise of
grinding and rush of water, in times when there was no rival mechanism
to share the fascination of the water-driven mill.
137-43. 'This contrivance, as I believe, is prepared, sir knight, for
the honour of meeting me by the way. Let God work His will, Lo! It helps
me not a bit. Though I lose my life, no noise causes me to fear.' It has
been suggested that _wel o<r w>oo_ 'weal or woe' should be read instead
of the interjection _we loo!_ But Gawayn's despair (l. 141) is not in
keeping with ll. 70 f., 90 f., or with the rest of his speech. The
looseness of the short lines makes emendation dangerous. Otherwise we
might read _Hit helppeȝ þe not a mote_, i.e. whatever happens, mere
noise will not help the Green Knight by making Gawayn afraid; or,
alternatively, _hermeȝ_ 'harms' for _helppeȝ_.
151. 'Yet he went on with the noise with all speed for a while, and
turned away <to proceed> with his grinding, before he would come
down.' The nonchalance of the Green Knight is marked throughout the
poem.
155. _A Deneȝ ax_: the ordinary long-bladed battle-axe was called a
'Danish' axe, in French _hache danoise_, because the Scandinavians in
their raids on England and France first proved its efficiency in battle.
158. _bi þat lace_, '<measured> by the lace'. In _Gawayne_ (ll. 217 ff.
of the full text) the axe used at the first encounter is described. It
had:
_A lace lapped aboute, þat louked at þe hede,
And so after þe halme halched ful ofte,
Wyth tryed tasseleȝ þerto tacched innoghe, &c._
'A lace wrapped about <the handle>, which was fastened at the <axe's>
head, and was wound about the handle again and again, with many choice
tassels fastened to it', &c.
159. _as fyrst_, 'as at the first encounter', i.e. when he rode into
Arthur's hall. His outfit of green is minutely described at ll. 151 ff.
of the full text.
162. _Sette þe stele to þe stone_: i.e. he used the handle of the axe as
a support when crossing rough ground. _stele_ = 'handle', not 'steel'.
164. _hypped... strydeȝ_: note the frequent alternation of past tense
and historic present. So ll. 3-4 _passed... prayses_; 107-8
_kacheȝ... com... liȝteȝ_; 280-1 _haldeȝ... gef_, &c.