Green Knight's Holly Branch
The holly branch carried by the Green Knight in the opening scenes of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight marks him as a figure of the winter season when he rides into Arthur's hall on New Year's Eve. The poem says the knight carried no shield or spear, only a holly bough in one hand and the great axe in the other, the evergreen symbol of the old year's endurance. He holds the branch in the same hand that grips the axe as he delivers his challenge, so that the two objects together present him as a green man of the turning year. Some readers see the holly as a sign of peace, since it was the emblem