The\nSword in the Stone is a legend which tells the origin of Excalibur and the\ncrowning of King Arthur Pendragon. Many\nversions of the legend tell of Arthur pulling the sword from a stone, others an\nanvil, and another from a lake. However,\nmuch of what people know of Excalibur and King Arthur are based on modern interpretations\nand a misunderstanding of the true origin of the sword. Much how Excalibur would eventually be passed\nfrom one knight to another, the story was cycled from one person to another who\nthen made changes in order to convey a different meaning or even completely\nalter the story all together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nfirst ever mention of the sword dates back to 1136 CE in Geoffrey of Monmouth\u2019s\nwork the History of the Kings of Britain<\/em>, however, in this book the\nsword is referred to as Caliburnus <\/em>(or Caliburn). The Sword in the Stone, however, was first mentioned\nin Robert de Boron\u2019s poem Merlin<\/em>. \nBoron writes the sword to have been drawn from an anvil originally, though\nother writers have since changed this to be a stone, which was placed in the\nstone in order to be drawn by the heir to the throne and successor of Uther\nPendragon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Eventually the story was altered and changed around until Thomas Malory immortalized it in his work Le Morte D\u2019Arthur<\/em> in 1485 CE.\u00a0 Here Malory states the Sword in the Stone not as Excalibur but as a different sword all together.\u00a0 The Sword in the Stone was said to have been shattered by King Pellinore when he and Arthur fought and that Excalibur was in fact given to Arthur by the Lady of the Lake as a symbol of power, virtue, and his right to rule.\u00a0 Even after Arthur\u2019s death at the hands of Mordred, Malory writes Excalibur was returned to the Lady of the Lake rather than allowing it to fall into the hands of a knight who may wish to succeed Arthur and become king.\u00a0 However, this has not always been the case in every version of the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 According to the poem Conte du Graal<\/em> by Chretien de Troyes (c. 1130-1190 CE), Excalibur is said to have been wielded by Sir Gawain.\u00a0 The Vulgate Cycle<\/em> and Post-Vulgate Cycle<\/em> states the sword was given to Gawain by Arthur who then gave it to Lancelot to defend Guinevere.\u00a0 Afterwards, Gawain returns the sword to Arthur before returning it to the Lady of the Lake after Arthur\u2019s death.\u00a0 It is hard to conclude which story should be taken as the \u201ctrue story\u201d of King Arthur and Excalibur, but with the many alterations it has gone through, a theme is presented that it is quite consistent in this legend and many other forms of mythology throughout the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Swords have been used in legend and myths long before the creation of King Arthur. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: R. David Crouse Origin of Excalibur The Sword in the Stone is a legend which tells the origin of Excalibur and the crowning of King Arthur Pendragon. Many versions of the legend tell of Arthur pulling the sword from a stone, others an anvil, and another from a lake. However, much of what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"parent":500,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-171","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/history\/233-2020s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/history\/233-2020s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/history\/233-2020s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/history\/233-2020s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/history\/233-2020s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/history\/233-2020s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":718,"href":"https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/history\/233-2020s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/171\/revisions\/718"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/history\/233-2020s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ds.guilford.edu\/classes\/history\/233-2020s\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Symbolism of Swords<\/h2>\n\n\n\n