Gawain - Finding the Green Chapel
 

I was just doing some reading about Gawain and the Green Knight and found a site on t'internet which gives some possibilities for the locations mentioned. Now I was quite excited by this as I've often thought to myself that I knew where the Green Chapel might be and the person who owns this site has chosen the same place - a very, very weird cave near Wetton Mill in the Manifold Valley.

Anyway, I though it might be of interest so here it is: http://www.it
haca.edu/faculty/twomey/travels/sggk_frameset.htm (hoping link works, something's changed???)

I remember one spring day about ten years back me and my mate were having a nose around the Manifold Valley, Dovedale and Thor's Cave (mentioned on that site) and we saw this cave from the road and we were spooked by it but couldn't work out how to get up to it - the rivers were in full flood and not long before we'd narrowly missed driving into a ford over the River Manifold that had turned into a raging torrent. Might be a good expedition one day?

I know both locations very well. I was working at Ecton in the Manifold valley last Monday during the great rainstorms and took the time to visit Wetton Mill. The ford, usually half an inch deep, was again a raging torrent.

I've always thought of Lud's Cave (or Lud's Church) as a suitable location for the Green Chapel but never considered Wetton Mill as such. Perhaps that's because Lud's Church has always been quiet and spooky when I've been there, summer or winter, whereas Wetton Mill has always been full of people (except for last Monday) with children noisily playing in the river; very pleasant but not in the least mythic.
.

Lud's Church is one of the few places around the Peak that I've never visited, oddly enough but I'm quite intrigued by the description so it might have to be one for a sunny day (if we get one) this summer. And again, oddly enough, Wetton Mill has always been very quiet when I've been - as I've only ever been during the week! There's an odd area coming up one of the back roads from around Longnor towards Axe Edge that also looks interesting but alas I don't think any of the big mapping websites do ordnance maps now so I can't find a link to where I mean :(

Gawain the movie
 

OK, slightly off-topic here but,

this thread (one of the few on Gawain and the Green Knight) reminded me of the film, which may have been made in the 70s or early 80s, anyone else remember?

Anyway, the film locations included Castell Coch just north of Cardiff and Merthyr Mawr sand dunes by Bridgend. I'm afraid I remember little of it apart from the locations, which were examples of the few times I'd seen anything 'local' on film, as this was aeons before Dr. Who took over Cardiff!

How does it feel to live on the Time Rift? I'm quite jealous if you have the dashing Captain Jack hanging around and frequent visits from the Doctor ;)

Anyway...what I came to ask was...do you mean the film with Sean Connery in it? I've heard about this but not yet seen it. Just how many fantasy type films did the guy do?

Iffy Movie
 

Hi Lal,

I couldn't remember Sean Connery in it so I bowed to the inevitable and Googled, it turns out that I remember the previous version (1973!) and old Sean was in the 1984 version, apparently the '73 film was a bit of a clunker

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070093/usercomments

though I am happy to see that it may have inspired Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which is surely good enough for anyone. I must add that I saw it as a repeat on TV some years later than 1973, honest!

As for the Time Rift, I'm exiled to the land of the Saes these days but I drop back in every so often (hmm some weird time rift effects 1973 style oddness here maybe? - if only!)

Cheers