The Power of Three in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight A recurring theme in almost all Old English writings involves the number three. Beowulf fought the dragon in three rounds. At Morte Darthur, King Arthur sent Sir Bedivere to cast Excalibur into the lake three times. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight the number three has triple importance. In this story there were three different events that each happened in three phases: the three hunts of the Lord, the three seductions by the Lady and the three blows of the ax suffered by the Green Knight; all three are related to each other. Hunting and seductions are both closely related to each other, but there is a little twist involved in the characters in these situations. The role of the game that the Lord is hunting is also the role of the Lady, but in the seduction scenes it is the hunter who is hunted by the prey. In the first hunt, the Lord's prey is a deer. The deer were skittish and not much of a challenge; the first time the Lady seduced Sir Gawain she was a little nervous and it wasn't much of a challenge. Furthermore, the Lord: “Let the deer pass, with their broad antlers, for it was considered a crime, in the closed season, if a man of that demesne molested the male deer” (lines 1154-6). Just as it was a crime to hunt bucks at that time, it was also a crime for the Lady to "harass the buck." But he was only following the will of his Lord, something Sir Gawain did not know at the time. The Lady's seduction intimidated Sir Gawain, and it is here that we can tell of the first blow of the Green Knight's axe. The Green Knight stopped his blow the first time because Sir Gawain flinched as the ax approached. This fear of his death can be related to the fear of the Lady's seduction. In both situations he had to fear his life (adultery is punishable by death), and in both situations he showed his fear. In the end, Sir Gawain exchanged the one kiss he had received from the Lady for the stag slain by the Lord, for in their agreement whatever was won would be exchanged at the end of the day..