Middle English tale of Chretien de Troyes' hero Perceval, the late-13th- or early-14th-century Sir Perceval of Galles, has Perceval, unlike his namesake in Chrétien's story involving the castle of the Fisher King, enter the Otherworld in its common Irish manifestation as a Land of Maidens. Here he defeats a Saracen hoard, led by a giant, marries the queen of this land, and then goes to visit the giant's brother in order to recover a ring. Mule without a Bridle Paien de Maisières' Arthurian romance La Mule sans Frain, The Mule without a Bridle, dating to the early 13th century, tells a story of a maiden who arrives at King Arthur's court asking for a knight to help her to reclaim her mule's bridle. Sir Kay accepts the challenge but soon returns in defeat. Sir Gawain sets off, traverses a forest full of wild animals that all bow to the mule, comes to a perilous bridge, crosses it and is immediately confronted by a mysterious castle. Gaining entry to this castle, which is able magically to revolve, he is at once accosted by a giant who emerges from a cave brandishing an axe. 'Cut off my head, today,' the giant insists, 'and I shall cut off yours' tomorrow.' Sir Gawain complies, and the next morning he has to bow his neck to the giant's axe.<ref>'The Mule Without a Bridle by Paien de Maisières. G L Way translation, published 1815</ref> Like Cú Chulainn, however, he is given only a token blow and the testing of his courage by this giant, which bears similarities to the ancient Irish stories of Cú Roi, continues. Green Knight Perhaps the most widely respected Arthurian poem in Middle English is that found in British Library MS Cotton Nero A x., alongside Pearl and Cleanness, and known as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In this story, King Arthur's Christmas feast is interrupted by the arrival of a huge man on horseback holding a holly branch in one hand and an axe in the other. An axe of 'green steel'. He invites those assembled to take part in a Christmas game. If one of them will cut off his head, they can keep the axe, but he, the green knight, must be permitted to deliver a similar blow to their necks later. All King Arthur's knights suspect a trick, but seeing instead a looming humiliation if none of