Where did King Arthur Acquire Excalibur, the Stone or the Lake?

Ancient Origins

Excalibur is a legendary sword found in Arthurian legends, and is arguably one of the most renowned swords in history. This sword was wielded by the legendary King Arthur, and magical properties were often ascribed to it. In some versions of the story of King Arthur, Excalibur is regarded to be the same sword as the Sword in the Stone. In most versions, however, these are in fact two separate weapons. The fascination with this sword is visible in modern pop culture, as Excalibur can be found in various films, television series and video games.

Excalibur the Sword, by Howard Pyle. (Public Domain)

 Origins of Excalibur
The story of Excalibur may be traced back to Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), which was written around 1136. In this piece of work, Excalibur is known by its Latinised name, Caliburnus or Caliburn. Excalibur is described as “an excellent sword made in the isle of Avallon”. It may be pointed out that in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s work, Excalibur does not possess any magical powers. Instead, the author focuses on Arthur’s prowess as a warrior. Thus, for instance, “…

Arthur, provoked to see the little advantage he had yet gained, and that victory still continued in suspense, drew out his Caliburn, and calling upon the name of the blessed Virgin, rushed forward with great fury into the thickest of the enemy’s ranks; … neither did he give over the fury of his assault until he had, with his Caliburn alone, killed four hundred and seventy men.”

Bronze Excalibur and King Arthur Sculpture, Tintagel Castle, Cornwall, UK (Public Domain)

One or Two Swords of the Legends of Arthur
As was stated, it may be noted that Excalibur is sometimes equated with the Sword in the Stone, for example of this is how the story is dealt with in Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d'Arthur, first published in 1485. Other versions of the legend claim that King Arthur obtained this magical sword from another source. In most versions of the story, however, these were two separate weapons. The Sword in the Stone first appears in Robert de Boron’s Merlin, in which Arthur pulls out the sword that was set by the wizard in an anvil (which was changed by later writers into a stone).

‘Then last of all Arthur tried. He took the sword by the hilt and drew it from the stone quite easily’ An island story; a child's history of England (Public Domain)

In another version, King Arthur is said to have received Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake. The sword was given to Arthur after he broke his sword during a fight with Pellinore, the king of Listenoise, famous for his hunt of the Questing Beast.

Arthur meets the Lady of the Lake and gets the sword Excalibur. Tales of romance, 1906 (Public Domain)

The Powers of Excalibur
Whilst Geoffrey of Monmouth’s early description of Excalibur is not of a magical sword, later authors decided to make it so. Excalibur’s best known magical property is the ability of its scabbard to heal wounds. This meant that whenever King Arthur had Excalibur’s scabbard with him, he could not be hurt. In the Arthurian legends, this magical scabbard was stolen by the king’s evil half-sister, Morgan le Fay, who then threw it into a lake.

As a result of this, Arthur lost his invulnerability, and was mortally wounded when he fought against Modred (best-known as Arthur’s illegitimate son by another of his half-sisters, Morgaine) at the Battle of Camlann. Before he dies, Arthur commands one of his knights, Sir Bedivere (or Sir Griflet in some versions), to throw Excalibur back into the lake. In one version, the knight disobeyed his sovereign twice by pretending to cast the sword into the lake, as he was not willing to throw away such a precious weapon. When the knight finally throws Excalibur into the lake, a hand reaches out of the water to receive the sword, and pulls it under.

How Sir Bedivere Cast the Sword Excalibur into the Water. Aubrey Beardsley Illustration from: Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur. London: Dent, 1894 (Public Domain)

Origins of Excalibur
So, where did Arthur acquire the sword Excalibur? Well, the truth is that the story of King Arthur is generally considered as just that, a story, with his actual existence doubtful, so there is no set truth. If you think oldest is best, then the first scribe of the story was Geoffrey of Monmouth in his 12th century version. He wrote of its origins only, ‘Caliburn, [Excalibur] best of swords, that was forged within the Isle of Avallon’ which removes its mystical origin and states clearly where it was made. The first to speak of its origin from a stone is Robert de Boron in his poem Merlin, later in the 12th century, and in both the Vulgate Cycle and Mallory’s version it is made clear the sword in the stone is not Excalibur as it is broken in battle and is replaced by the Excalibur from the lake.

It should be remembered that all of these writers were transcribing stories which originated in the 6th – 8th centuries and had been passed on from oral to written traditions over hundreds of years before the sword and King Arthur were brought together. Although the version by Geoffrey of Monmouth has some basis in historical record, there is also a lot which is not traceable and his account is generally considered more romance than history with the necessary dramatic embellishments.

It seems then, there is no truth readily available. If the real Excalibur did come from the stone, later stories of the magic sword breaking seem incompatible. If the sword from the stone breaking is thought true, the replacement from the lake is needed. Caliburn was forged in Avallon but how it came to Arthur’s hand is not stated. If you want to believe all the legends, the existence of two swords is a requirement.

Quest for Excalibur
As the magical sword of King Arthur, Excalibur has appeared in a number of modern films, television series and video games. Most of the time, there is a quest in which the protagonist of the film / game has to search for the magical sword. This is an indication that Excalibur still fascinates our imagination, and, like the stories of its wielder, King Arthur, will continue to do so well into the future.

Top image: The taking of Excalibur by John Duncan (Public Domain)

By Wu Mingren

Who Pulled the Sword from the Stone? The Truth of the Swords of King Arthur

Ancient Origins

This spring a new movie, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, is to hit the big screens. Staring Charlie Hunnam as the fabled warrior, the film title suggests that the central theme is Arthur’s legendary sword. It will be interesting to see just how the sword is depicted, considering that previous Arthurian epics have been far from true to the original tales.

 The Sword in the Stone
The theme of King Arthur pulling the sword from a stone in order to prove himself worthy to rule is perhaps the most muddled of all the Arthurian legends.

Arthur Draws the Sword from the Stone, by the nineteenth-century English artist Walter Crane. (Public Domain)

To start with, in the original story the sword is stuck in an anvil that rests on a stone—not in the stone itself. And the sword in question is not Excalibur, as commonly believed, but a completely different weapon. The usual setting for the event portrayed by Hollywood is somewhere in the countryside or in a dark forest. However, in the Arthurian romances composed during the Middle Ages, the episode takes place right in the heart of London. The oldest surviving version of the sword and stone story was written by the Burgundian poet Robert de Boron, around the year 1200, who claimed to have taken the theme from a much earlier Dark Age account. According to Robert, the event occurs in the churchyard of “the greatest church in London.”

Merlin dictating his prophecies to his scribe, Blaise; French 13th century miniature from Robert de Boron's Merlin en Prose (written ca 1200). (Public Domain)

Since Roman times, the largest and most important church in the British capital has been St. Paul’s Cathedral. Although St. Paul’s went through many periods of reconstruction, culminating with the building we see today, erected in the late 1600s, its location is recorded as having been the seat of the bishops of London since the Romans ruled Britain in the 4th century. As cathedrals were the seats of bishops, it’s certain then that there had been a cathedral on the site, whether or not it was originally dedicated to St. Paul, during the time Arthur is said to have lived— around the year 500.

 Surprisingly, an ancient stone really did stand in St. Paul’s churchyard during the Middle Ages that was recorded as being associated with a sword of power. Surviving records dating from as early as eleven hundred years ago refer to the stone as having great ceremonial significance, marking the traditional place where laws were passed and proclamations issued. After 1189, when Henry Fitz-Ailwin became London’s first mayor, the inauguration ceremony expressly required the new incumbent to strike the stone with his sword to validate his entitlement to govern the city. Just how far back the tradition associating the stone with a sword of authority actually goes is unknown, but it certainly existed when Robert de Boron penned his work.

The London Stone
Against all odds, this ancient stone still survives, and local folklore does associate it with King Arthur. Known as the London Stone, it was removed from the churchyard when St. Paul’s was rebuilt after the Great Fire of London in 1666. More recently, and for many years, the stone lay unnoticed and almost forgotten, set into a niche in the wall of a bookstore opposite Cannon Street Station, where it was practically obscured by an iron grille.

The London Stone. (Photography by Debbie Cartwright)

The building is now being demolished to make way for a new one, and the London Stone has been taken to the nearby Museum of London. The object is a block of limestone, approximately 53 × 43 × 30 centimeters (21 × 17 × 12 inches) in size, the remnant of what was once a somewhat larger item, and the museum has confirmed that the artifact could well be of Roman origin, making it old enough to have been in the cathedral churchyard at the time King Arthur is said to have lived.

The London Stone was hidden away for years behind an iron grille on a busy city street. (Photography by Debbie Cartwright)

The Angles and Saxons
The unusual notion of a sword being stuck in an anvil on top of a stone might be accounted for by an early mistranslation or mix-up of words. Arthur is said to have successfully fought against the invading Anglo-Saxons, originally two separate tribes— the Angles and Saxons— from northern Germany. The Latin word for a rock or large fragment of stone is saxum, a word that sounds very similar to “Saxon.” This, together with the similarity of the name “Angle” and the word “anvil,” might explain how the unusual motif originated. If the legend held that Arthur had “drawn the sword” – in other word, “taken the fight” – from the Angles and Saxons, then at some point during the turmoil following the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 400s, and the subsequent lack of historical records, oral accounts may have become confused. By Robert de Boron’s time, an account of Arthur seizing the initiative from the Angles and Saxons might well have evolved into the story of him drawing a sword from an anvil and stone.

 Excalibur
Excalibur is another sword entirely. In the medieval Arthurian tales, Merlin takes Arthur to receive this marvelous weapon from a mysterious water nymph called the Lady of the Lake.

King Arthur asks the Lady of the Lake for the Sword Excalibur, by the nineteenth-century English artist Walter Crane. (Public Domain)

And when the king ultimately lies dying on the field of battle, Excalibur is thrown into an enchanted pool, where the Lady of the Lake catches the weapon and takes it down into the watery depths. This theme probably developed from the ancient Celtic practice of casting prized belongings, such as swords, into sacred lakes and pools as offerings to a water goddess. Archaeologists have uncovered many such objects: for example, from the bed of the dried-up lake of Llyn Cerrig Bach on the island of Anglesey in North Wales. It is thought that warriors’ swords were thrown into such hallowed waters during funerals so as to assure the spirit’s safe passage to the afterlife.

Sir Bedevere Casts the Sword Excalibur into the Lake, by the nineteenth-century English artist Walter Crane. (Public Domain)

A Historical Sword
Perhaps the most common mistake made by Hollywood in the portrayal of Arthur’s sword, be it Excalibur or the one connected with the stone, is to depict it as a long, medieval “arming sword,” commonly, but wrongly, referred to as a broadsword. Around the year 500, the period in which the story of Arthur is set, swords would have been much shorter, with a stunted cross-guard, such as the Roman-style cavalry sword, the spatha.

A historical “Excalibur.” Replica of a high-status spatha, a short Roman-style sword possessed by post-Roman British chieftains. (Photography by Debbie Cartwright)

These were basically used for cutting down opponents from horseback, rather than for swordfights as depicted in the movies. The spatha seems to have been adopted as a sword of office by the post-Roman Britons, so if there was an historical Arthur then his sword would most likely have been one of these.

So, when you watch what is promising to be the new blockbuster Arthurian movie, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, perhaps it would be fun to tick off just how many aspects of the “legend” tie up with the original tales, or the historical period in which the story was first set.

A fuller account of this investigation into the legends of King Arthur can be found on Graham Phillips’ website: grahamphillips.net

And in his book The Lost Tomb of King Arthur ***