135. Had we not Chaucer's Miller and _The Reeves Tale_, the vividness and intimacy of the casual allusions would show the place of the flour-mill in mediaeval life. Havelok drives out his foes _So dogges ut of milne-hous;_ and the Nightingale suggests as fit food for the Owl _one frogge Þat sit at mulne vnder cogge._ These are records of hours spent by the village boys amid the noise of grinding and rush of water, in times when there was no rival mechanism to share the fascination of the water-driven mill. 137-43. 'This contrivance, as I believe, is prepared, sir knight, for the honour of meeting me by the way. Let God work His will, Lo! It helps me not a bit. Though I lose my life, no noise causes me to fear.' It has been suggested that _wel o<r w>oo_ 'weal or woe' should be read instead of the interjection _we loo!_ But Gawayn's despair (l. 141) is not in keeping with ll. 70 f., 90 f., or with the rest of his speech. The looseness of the short lines makes emendation dangerous. Otherwise we might read _Hit helppeȝ þe not a mote_, i.e. whatever happens, mere noise will not help the Green Knight by making Gawayn afraid; or, alternatively, _hermeȝ_ 'harms' for _helppeȝ_. 151. 'Yet he went on with the noise with all speed for a while, and turned away <to proceed> with his grinding, before he would come down.' The nonchalance of the Green Knight is marked throughout the poem. 155. _A Deneȝ ax_: the ordinary long-bladed battle-axe was called a 'Danish' axe, in French _hache danoise_, because the Scandinavians in their raids on England and France first proved its efficiency in battle. 158. _bi þat lace_, '<measured> by the lace'. In _Gawayne_ (ll. 217 ff. of the full text) the axe used at the first encounter is described. It had: _A lace lapped aboute, þat louked at þe hede, And so after þe halme halched ful ofte, Wyth tryed tasseleȝ þerto tacched innoghe, &c._ 'A lace wrapped about <the handle>, which was fastened at the <axe's> head, and was wound about the handle again and again, with many choice tassels fastened to it', &c. 159. _as fyrst_, 'as at the first encounter', i.e. when he rode into Arthur's hall. His outfit of green is minutely described at ll. 151 ff. of the full text. 162. _Sette þe stele to þe stone_: i.e. he used the handle of the axe as a support when crossing rough ground. _stele_ = 'handle', not 'steel'. 164. _hypped... strydeȝ_: note the frequent alternation of past tense and historic present. So ll. 3-4 _passed... prayses_; 107-8 _kacheȝ... com... liȝteȝ_; 280-1 _haldeȝ... gef_, &c. 169 f. 'Now, sweet sir, one can trust you to keep an appointment.' 175. _þat þe falled_, 'what fell to your lot', i.e. the right to deal the first blow.