Stanza 4 -
"Then lords and ladies leaped forth, largesse distributing,
offered New Year gifts in high voices, handed them out,
Bustling and bantering about these offerings,
Ladies laughed fully loudly, though losing their wealth
And he that won was not woeful, you may well believe."
or another translation (same lines):
"Then noble knights ran forward with New Year gifts,
Handed out what they had, shouting, with loud
Guessing-games about each other's gifts.
Even when they guessed wrong the ladies laughed--
And, believe me, those who won weren't angry at all."
Two things to pick up here: 1) They are playing games. The knights have gifts to give to the young women, the women have to guess what it is and if they guess incorrectly they have to give the knight a kiss. It's a kissing game. This introduces the motif of games. The bigger game will come soon. 2) It also introduces the idea of romance or games that are connected to romance.
Make the comparison/contrast:
The description of King Arthur with the description of the Green Knight.
Some notes from the book - below:
Toulouse, Turkestan The French city Toulouse was famous for the production of luxury fabrics. Tharsia, or Turkestan, in central Asia, was famous for its rugs and tapestries.
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