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To me, the fox was obviously a guardian creature common in folklore, possible a spirit animal or possibly an avatar of his witch mother. Either way, it doesn't really matter.

The Giants? That just symbolized him leaving into the unknown parts of the land. Kind of like, here be dragons; only the land variety.

I have a bigger question about why his Mom summoned the Green Knight in the first place?

The fox is a symbol of Gawain himself; or rather, his difficulty in knowing himself. This is the old question, what separate beast from man? The answer is, self-knowledge. The fox is a cunning animal but still just a beast. Man has insight into himself. Gawain’s main problem is that he lacks this self-insight. This is why Arthur and Morgan conspire to summon the Green Knight in the first place, to put Gawain into a situation to develop a perspective. Until he does, he is like a fox: he has (animal) cunning but no (human) wisdom.

This is visually confirmed by the paintings in Bertilak’s house (which show a hunter pursuing a fox when the camera pans in one direction and the same hunter pursuing a man when it pans in the other) and in the ceiling painting above Gawain’s bed in his vision sequence (where the painted fox has a man’s face). Narratively, the confirmation is when Bertilak releases the fox he had trapped while hunting in the same moment that Gawain “escapes“ from (i.e., insists on leaving) Bertilak. And of course his “conversation” with the fox is really just his interior struggle with his own perspective: why not just lie about completing the quest? If he insists on meeting the Green Knight why insist on taking the “cheat mode” magic belt? Gawain doesn’t like these questions nagging at his conscience and so chases the fox away.

The giants are tricky but anyone familiar with children will remember that although little kids like to run around on their own they come to a point where they want to be carried. It’s similar to how a child gets tired but refuses to go to sleep and so gets cranky and starts acting out. A child doesn’t have the insight to evaluate themselves and say, oh I am tired and I need to rest. This is similar to Gawain’s lack of connection with himself. He literally asks the giant to carry him, then recoils in fear as soon as the giant goes to pick him up.

 Easy E wrote:
To me, the fox was obviously a guardian creature common in folklore, possible a spirit animal or possibly an avatar of his witch mother. Either way, it doesn't really matter.

The Giants? That just symbolized him leaving into the unknown parts of the land. Kind of like, here be dragons; only the land variety.

I have a bigger question about why his Mom summoned the Green Knight in the first place?

His mother is Morgan Le'Fey in some versions. I.E. Arthur's sister trying to ruin Arthur's Kingdom by discrediting and ruining all of his knights. They Green Knight is a test/challenge she expects them to fail. Some of the issue with the Arthurian Legends is it's all so old and the stories have been retold in so many different ways that different characters merge and mix and become whole new amalgamations over time.

I thought the fox was his mom.

More I think about this movie, the more I want to watch it again.

Interesting interpretation Manchu.

The fox makes sense, but the giants feel like more of a stretch.

I was a bit unsure if his mother was Morgan Le'Fay or just a witch. I did not get the sense that she and Arthur were conspiring per say.

The whole event is a set up, orchestrated by Arthur and Morgan, possibly also Guinevere. It seems (at least some of) the knights are also in on it, as none of them accept the Green Knight’s challenge either or offer Gawain a sword. The idea is that, Arthur, in need of an heir, will lend Gawain Excalibur in front of his entire court and Gawain with the king’s sword will accomplish something great, showing himself to be a fit heir. The appearance of the Green Knight immediately follows (1) Arthur summoning Gawain for a private talk and asking him to tell a story of his exploits and (2) Arthur’s formal speech about the future of Camelot.

The giants thing is only a stretch if you forget what literally happened on screen: Gawain asks for a piggyback ride across the valley and then immediately cowers when the giant accedes to his own request. It’s utterly typical of Gawain, to both want and not want whatever it is. Whether this is a connection to giants, a committed relationship with his girlfriend, or even being a knight, he’s conflicted to the point of paralysis.

Okay, that second paragraph on the giants makes more sense.

I do not recall if Gawain was Arthur's heir, but the flash at the end seems to allude to that outcome, but it leads to ruin IF he cheats at the Green Knights challenge. What I am less sure about, is now that he did NOT cheat at the Green Knight's challenge that destruction of Camelot is avoided. My fading knowledge of the L'Morte D'Arthur and my memory of the movie Excalibur says no.

After the voiceover prologue, the first shot is through a window where we see several iterations of a flock of geese worrying a goat. Finally, a man and a woman come out of a small house, mount a horse, and leave. In the background, the thatched roof of a building is on fire. The camera pulls back from the window and we find we have been looking through a window in a bedroom where Gawain is sleeping. I think we have been watching ‘the dreams” of slumbering Gawain. In his fantasy, he escapes the anxieties and eventual downfall of Camelot (symbolized by the quarreling animals and burning thatch) with his girlfriend.

Speaking of whom, she wants to be more than his feth buddy. But he’s in denial. He won’t tell her that they can’t have a future together and he won’t tell her that he’ll stick with her even if he has to give up his social status. In his third-act vision, he impregnates her and steals/buys their baby. In “the real world,” having finally made a decision for himself (not to “cheat” with the belt), maybe Gawain will have the inner resources to do something different. Maybe he will, as in his fantasy from the beginning of the movie, leave Camelot behind to whatever its fate may be and ride off with Essel.

This movie is not very much about the Arthurian cycles. Mallory has Gawain mortally wounded by Lancelot as a result of their feuding, which is the fall of the Round Table. (In The Green Knight, Lancelot is long gone.) In Excalibur, Perceval, while lost on the grail quest, sees Gawain’s dead body carried across his horse.

Beautiful movie, but it felt about 20-30% too long. As far as A24 movies go I thought The Witch and The Lighthouse were far better.