Lorehammer: The Green Knight

A fell mist rises in Bretonnia. The sky darkens and a chill enters the air. He bursts forth from a old tree, a still lake, or a sacred glade: the Green Knight is here!

The Green Knight is the subject of many folklore tales, songs and poems developed in Bretonnia over the centuries. To most commoners the Green Knight is a myth, but the Questing Knights and Grail Knights know better.

Many a grail quest has ended with the Green Knight challenging the questor to single combat. Should the Green Knight be overcome, the quest is over and the questor will soon find the grail at his lips.

The Green Knight himself shrugs off wounds that would kill normal men. Any wound is just a flesh wound to him, and some Questing Knights have struck off his head only to see the knight place it back on his shoulders and ride away.

In battle the Green Knight is like an unstoppable force of nature. It may be that he joins Bretonnian armies by accident more than design. If they happen to be fighting the same threat the Green Knight is responding to, then he will be sighted on the battlefield. Usually he remains around some sacred spot, defending it with zeal and unnatural energy.

To the beastmen he is known as Shaabhekh – the soul killer. Many a marauding band of beasts has been wiped out by the Green Knight before other Bretonnians knew they were there, and long before they could reach the sacred boundary of Athel Loren.

Some knights have struck off the Green Knight’s head, but none have seen his face. Some say he is the spirit of the land given knightly form. Others hold that he is Gilles le Breton, the first Grail Knight and king of Bretonnia, kept beyond death in service to the Lady of the Lake.

In miniature

Games Workshop produced one figure for the Green Knight, and like other models in the Bretonnian range it has now been discontinued. It’s worth searching out though:

The model is available in metal and is a good painting project or diorama subject all by itself.