 This encounter takes place following the stalking of a deer by the king in Inglewood Forest, a setting that in other Middle English Arthurian poems such as "The Awntyrs off Arthure" and "Sir Gawain and the Carle of Carlisle", is a haunted forest and a place where the Otherworld is near at hand.The king, on his own instructions, becomes separated from the rest of his hunting party, follows the deer, kills it and is then surprised by the arrival of an armed knight, Sir Gromer Somer Joure, whose lands, this knight claims, have been seized from him by Sir Gawain.King Arthur is alone and unarmed and Sir Gromer's arrival poses a real threat to him.