Scene 4: The Green Chapel
And ofte chaunged his cher þe chapel to seche.
He sey non suche in no syde – and selly hym þoᵹt –
Saue, a lyttel on a launde, a lawe as hit were,
A balᵹ berᵹ bi a bonke þe brymme bysyde,
Bi a forᵹ of a flode þat ferked þare;
Þe borne blubred þerinne as hit boyled hade
(ll. 2169-74).
…
Þenne he boᵹez to þe berᵹe, aboute hit he walkez,
Debatande with hymself quat hit be myᵹt.
Hit hade a hole on þe ende and on ayþer syde,
And ouergrowen with gresse in glodes aywhere,
And al watz holᵹ inwith, nobot an olde caue
Or a creuisse of an olde cragge – he couþe hit noᵹt
deme
With spelle.
“We! Lorde,” quoþ þe gentyle knyᵹt,
“Wheþer þis be þe Grene Chapelle?
Here myᵹt aboute mydnyᵹt
Þe Dele his matynnes telle!”
“Now iwysse,” quoþ Wowayn, “wysty is here;
Þis oritore is vgly, with erbez ouergrowen.
Wel bisemez þe wyᵹe wruxled in grene
Dele here his deuocioun on þe Deuelez wyse;
Now I fele hit is þe Fende, in my fyue wyttez,
Þat hatz stoken me þis steuen to strye me here.
Þis is a chapel of meschaunce, þat chekke hit bytyde!
Hit is þe corsedest kyrk þat euer I com inne!”
With heᵹe helme on his hede, his launce in his honde,
He romez vp to þe roffe of þo roȝ wonez.
Þene herde he of that hyȝe hil, in a harde roche
Biȝonde þe broke, in a bonk, a wonder breme noyse.
Quat! hit clatered in þe clyff as hit cleue schulde,
As one vpon a gryndelston hade grounden a syþe.
What! hit wharred and whette as water at a mulne;
What! hit rusched and ronge rawþe to here
(ll. 2178-2204).
And often he moved his face (looked around) to seek the chapel.
He saw nothing like it on any side – and strange he thought it –
Except, a little way across a clearing, a hill as it were,
A rounded barrow by a bank beside the water’s edge,
By the falls [or furrow] of a flood [stream] that forked there;
The water bubbled therein as if it had boiled.
…
Then he wentto the barrow and walked about it,
Debated with himself what it might be.
It had a hole on the end and on either side,
And was overgrown with grass in patches everywhere,
And all was hollow within, nothing but an old cave
Or a crevice of an old crag – he could not assess it
With words.
“Alas! Lord,” said the gentle knight,
“Whether this be the Green Chapel?
Here might, about midnight,
The Devil tell his matins!
“Now indeed,” Gawain said, “it is desolate here;
This chapel is ugly, with herbs overgrown.
It seems likely that the knight wrapped in green
Deals [i.e., performs] his devotion in the Devil’s way;
Now I feel, in my five senses, it is the Fiend
That has stuck me with this meeting [also voice] to destroy me here.
This is a chapel of mischance, that doom befalls it!
It is the most accursed church that I even came upon!”
With a great helm on his head, [and] his lance in his hand,
He roams up to the roof of the rough dwelling.
Then he heard [echoing] off that high hill, in a hard rock
Beyond the brook, in a bank, a wondrously loud noise.
Woah! it clattered in the cliff as if it should split,
As [if] one had ground a scythe upon a grindstone.
Woah! It whirred and ground like water at a mill;
Woah! It rushed and rang, grievous to hear.
These lines are arguably the most famous descriptions of the environment for modern readers from any Middle English romance. Here, Gawain finally reaches the Green Chapel. Contrary to his (and, perhaps, readers’) expectations, he finds a barrow or hollow hill, a rocky “old cave” beside a rushing stream. Initially speechless, Gawain quickly recovers and climbs atop the “Chapel” to declare it the property of the Devil. Soon after, the sounds of a sharpening axe echo off the surrounding landscape, and the titular Green Knight appears for a final confrontation. What, in the end, is the Green Chapel? That remains a question readers must ultimately answer for themselves.
In a text that begins with references to real-world locations, the chapel remains enticingly ambiguous in terms of whether it alludes to a specific geographical location in medieval Britain. A long list of caves and stones have thus been suggested by audiences over the centuries. The images and videos paired here were recorded at a variety of these locations: from Thor’s Stone on the Wirral and caves on the Beeston Castle grounds to three compelling topographical features in the area of the Roaches: Thor’s Cave, Wetton Mill Cave, and Lud’s Church.
My intent in this selection is not to make any claims regarding the “legitimacy” of any one of these places as the “real” Green Chapel. Instead, I present them to explore the diverse frames they can provide to this scene, and thus the imaginary environment constructed by readers returning to the text. Notably, these recordings all had to be captured in the summer, six months distant from the seasonal setting of Gawain’s trip; as such, this context provides an intriguing parallel to the traditional “summer forest” setting of many other medieval Insular romances, both warping the reader’s image of the text’s landscape and emphasizing its break with the generically expected environmental conditions.
This image shows the view from the mouth of Thor’s Cave: an oval tunnel of stone opens onto a wooded valley framed by hills.
This image shows a small arch of stone framing the photographer, while small caves, rocks, and grassy hillsides rise all around. A discarded drink can is partially obscured by leaves near the base of the arch.
This image shows the view just above the mouth of Thor’s Cave, which encompasses a path stretching through a narrow valley enclosed by hills on one side, and the hill that contains the cave itself continuing to rise on the other. The visible landscape is predominately woodland and pasture.
The images included here show the interior, mouth, base view, and summit view from Thor’s Cave. Although obscured by vegetation, a shallow river flows near the base, and its course follows the valley north, as seen from the mouth and top of the cave. A prominent landmark, Thor’s Cave dominates the local valley. More than any of the other suggested “inspirations” for the Green Chapel, this cave communicates scale; both large and yet still easily climbable, it seems perfectly suited to human activity. Indeed, the garbage scattered in the margins of some of these shots illustrates that, in addition to hikers, it is also frequently the site for picnics and outdoor drinking. Sheep and cattle pasture immediately abut the hill, though the dramatic rock formations of the interior cut away much of that context, leaving the viewer visually isolated form those surroundings. The soundscape, of course, is not so easily contained – for birdsong and sheep calls still reach the interior. Yet the sound of moving air is also amplified by the various narrow cave mouths. All in all, the place is inspires awe and more than a little foreboding, despite its proximity to more “pedestrian” spaces. As such, it well suits a green chapel only a few miles distant from the castle of Hautedesert.
This video shows the interior of Wetton Mill Cave: rock walls form a rough circle above a dirt floor, while overhanging vegetation grows into a green ceiling. The sounds of falling rain, birds, sheep, and passing automobiles can be heard.
At the far end of the valley facing Thor’s Cave, nestled atop a hill behind a tea shop, one finds Wetton Mill Cave. This rocky knob is much smaller than Thor’s Cave, which can be faintly seen in the distance. However, what it lacks in size it makes up for in vegetative ambiance. Walking inside the main chamber, one finds a space walled in stone but open to the sky above. The latter opening, however, has been almost entirely roofed by overarching trees and shrubs. The green ceiling thus provided reshapes the tenor of light “inside” the cave, evoking strongly (for me, at least) the “green” of the Green Chapel. Moreover, the video included here illustrates how this open roof invites uniquely alluring experiences of soundscape (even with the paltry microphone I had available to me on that day). Just after the video begins and the photographer leaves the shot, a rain shower begins. The sound of rain drops hitting various leaves on their way to the dusty cave floor wraps the space around the central camera (and attendant microphone) like a blanket. The calls of birds and sheep grazing outside can occasionally be heard, while at one point a large truck downshifts as it navigates the twisting country lane nearby. The cumulative effect is one of otherworldly intimacy, scaled for the individual. The outside world, as the soundscape makes clear, is not erased – but there is more of a sense, in this sphere of stone, foliage, and rain, of isolation. As such, it would help to emphasize especially Gawain’s shock at having his observations (and snap evaluation) of the chapel be suddenly interrupted by the sounds of the sharpening axe. Indeed, the narrator’s initial gestures towards human industry as ways to explain the noise echo the interruption of the truck’s gears in the video, while also suggesting the scope of nature that ultimately lies beyond the fantasy of human control over, and utilization of, the landscape. For the sound is the harbinger of death, a reminder of mortality – or so it seems to Gawain.
The still images below show the photographer’s progress down into and through the narrow, vegetation-coated crevasse of Lud’s Church. These photographs are followed by a short video.
This photograph shows the entrance to Lud’s Church, coming off of a woodland trail.
This photograph shows the path down just after entering Lud’s Church.
This photograph shows the interior of Lud’s Church.
This photograph shows a fork in the path within Lud’s Church.
This video shows the photographer walking through a narrow crevasse, whose stone walls are overgrown with moss and other vegetation. The sound of footsteps on the muddy ground echoes off the walls once the photographer begins to walk (ergo, warning: the video’s perspective will begin to move of its own accord).
Located in the Roaches, a line of hills a few miles north of the valley that contains the two caves described above, Lud’s Church is an evocatively named narrow passage in the ground that runs between close, high walls of stone. Here, too, vegetation grows over the opening at the top of the rocky crevasse, and constant water dripping down the moist walls sustain lines of moss and small plants all the way to the muddy path along the bottom. More of a hallway than a cave, Lud’s Church nevertheless features some branching paths and corridors, and provides the “green” atmosphere in spades. As the included video illustrates, it provides an excellent environment for amplifying local sounds. The soundscape of the world beyond the crevasse is almost cut off when one enters it; but sounds like the muddy footsteps of the photographer in the video grow to fill the space, and even single drops of water falling from leaves or stones on the wall can reverberate when they strike the ground. Every sound here seems to take center stage, emphasizing the soundscape Gawain himself encounters.
This image shows a cave beneath a stone overhang in the woods. The mouth of the cave is blocked by a metal fence.
This image shows the leaf-strewn interior of a shallow cave, its mouth blocked by a metal fence.
This photograph shows a roll of three small entrances to a system of caves in the woods. All of the entrances are blocked by metal grates.
This photograph shows the low interior of a cave, with short arches formed by natural stone columns.
These images move further afield from the area of the Roaches, back towards Gawain’s line of approach from Wales and the Wirral Peninsula. Beeston Castle, sometimes suggested as an inspiration for Hautedesert, features a number of small caves and rocky outcrops on its grounds. Now barred by metal latices, their interiors can nevertheless be seen by visitors. Proximity to human settlement and other caves stands out especially in this location, amplifying the sense that one is never quite alone or protected from a surprise encounter.
This image shows a bowl-shaped segment of red stone at the top of an outcropping in the woods. Carved graffiti covers much of the stone’s surface, and the tops of trees are visible beyond its lip.
This photograph shows a tall red stone outcropping, alternately smooth and covered in carved graffiti, abutting a path through the woods.
This image shows a path through marshy woods and past standing water to the wooded base of a large red stone outcropping.
Thor’s Stone, meanwhile, is a landmark on the Wirral long associated with fairy activity, and that Richard Firth Green has recently suggested as a possible real-life inspiration for the Green Chapel (personal correspondence). Located only a mile or less inland from the shore of the Dee Estuary, Thor’s Stone is a clump of strikingly warm red stone rising a story or more from the scrub woodland that leads up to a headland overlooking the Dee. Marshy water runs and accumulates near the base of the stone, which attracts frequent climbers. Indeed, the stone is covered in carved and painted graffiti, its surface a historical (and ecological) palimpsest. While it lacks the immediately arresting cave mouths that would fit the “hollows” of the Green Chapel, its very form is nevertheless testament to how environments can literally and figuratively be rewritten through generations of human narrative and activity.