This story was in a school “reading book” rescued from a school library that closed in the mid 1960s.
The setup: A (knight?) walks into a tavern looking for someone willing to keep his word. The test: The knight says that he will allow someone to chop off his head, then three weeks later, the knight will return to chop off the other man’s head.
Someone calls him on it and says “Sure!” Guy goes over and chops off the knight’s head. Head goes rolling on the floor. Knight’s headless body then walks over to the disembodied head, reattaches it, and tells the guy, “OK, I’ll be back in three weeks.” Needless to say, the guy is not around when the knight comes back.
But another guy takes the knight up on his offer. Takes the axe, etc. But this guy is around when the knight comes back weeks later. He puts his head on the table/block/whatever and awaits the severance package.
Don’t remember how it ends, but I don’t think the knight actually swings the axe. After all, he had found a guy who would keep his word.
The version I read is that the knight swerves his axe at the last minute. It was an Irish folktale (with the legendary Irish hero whose name begins with a C), but there are a multitude of versions, I think, the most well-known being Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
In the original poem, the Green Knight actually charges into King Arthur’s Court and challenges anyone to take a swing at him. It’s a pretty good poem, done in alliteration, and has been translated many times into modern English. I prefer the Penguin edition myself. J.R.R. Tolkien did a translation, but, much as I like his fantasy, I can’t stand his translation.
It’s shown up much more recently, too. Thomas Berger included the episode in his King Arthur book, Arthur Rex circa 1980. The Sir Gawaine chapter was excerpted in Playboy, because Berger made it a heckuva lot more bawdy. Worth a read.
It’s been adapted for the screen as well, most notably in Sword of the Valiant, with Sean Connery (!!) playing he Green Knight.
It shoulda been better, but they got Miles O’Keefe (“Miles and Miles O’Keefe”, as Tom Servo said, although, to me, he’ll always be the worst movie Tarzan) to play Sir Gawaine, and it didn’t help that his hair looked like that of the guy on the Dutch Boy paint can. There was other stuff that made it pretty bad, too.
There were other versions:
But they’re not easily available. I’ve wanted to film this myself for years. Done right, it’d be a great flick.
Gerald Morris has written quiet a few grade school level books on the Green Knight and other similar legends. His books are filled with references, but also humorous. Scholastic may well have released one at some time. They’re not bad reads for the 8-11 set.