And the lord of the land still led the hunt,

driving hinds to their death through holts and heaths, 1320

and by the setting of the sun had slaughtered so many

of the does and other deer that it beggared belief.

Then finally the folk came flocking to one spot

and quickly they collected and counted the kill.

Then the leading lords and their left-hand men

chose the finest deer – those fullest with fat –

and orderd them cut open by those skilled in the art.

They assessed and sized every slain creature

and even on the feeblest found two fingers’ worth of fat.

Through the sliced-open throat they seized the stomach 1330

and the butchered innards were bound in a bundle.

Next they lopped off the legs and peeled back the pelt

and hooked out the bowels through the broken belly,

but carefully, being cautious not to cleave the knot.

Then they clasped the throat, and clinically they cut

the gullet from the windpipe, then garbaged the guts.

Then the shoulder blades were severed with sharp knives

and slotted through a slit so the hide stayed whole.

Then the beasts were prised apart at the breast,

and they went to work on the gralloching again, 1340

riving open the front as far as the hind-fork,

fetching out the offal, then with further purpose

filleting the ribs in the recognised fashion.

And the spine was subject to a similar process,

being pared to the haunch so it held as one piece

then hoisting it high and hacking it off.

And its name is the numbles, as far as I know, and

just that.

Its hind legs prised apart

they slit the fleshy flaps, 1350

then cleave and quickly start

to break it down its back.

Then the heads and necks of hinds were hewn off,

and the choice meat of the flanks chopped away from the chine,

and a fee for the crows was cast into the copse.

Then each side was skewered, stabbed through the ribs

and heaved up high, hung by its hocks,

and every person was paid with appropriate portions.

Using pelts for plates, the dogs pogged out

on liver and lights and stomach linings 1360

and a blended sop of blood and bread.

The kill-horn was blown and the bloodhounds bayed.

Then hauling their meat they headed for home,

sounding howling wails on their hunting horns,

and as daylight died they had covered the distance

and were back in the abode where Gawain sat biding

his time.

Warm friends, warm flames will meet

the huntsman’s home return.

Gawain as well will greet 1370

his host. Bright hearth-fires burn.

Then the whole of the household was ordered to the hall,

and the women as well with their maids in waiting.

And once assembled he instructs the servants

that the venison be revealed in view of the crowd,

and in excellent humour he hollered for Gawain

to see for himself the size of the kill,

and showed him the side-slabs sliced from the ribs.