GAWAIN Seen as the perfect knight, and the enemy of Sir Lancelot, Sir Gawain found his reputation tested by the legendary and enigmatic Green Man, an adventure which begins in King Arthur's hall in Camelot on New Year's Eve. A huge green giant challenges the knights to a beheading contest, and Sir Gawain accepts and severs the head of the giant, who, unmoved, picks up his head and mounts his horse, the green lips on the severed head issuing a challenge for Gawain to meet the Green Knight in a lonely chapel, a year hence, to receive his share of the axe's edge. Reaching the appointed place, Gawain has his meeting with the Green Man, but as the axe descends he flinches, and so keeps his head but loses his reputation.