The Holy Sword Excalibur

Ammar

 of Britain. It was associated with the 

 very early on. Excalibur and the Sword in the Stone (the proof of 

) are in some versions said to be different, though in other incarnations they are either the same or at least share their name. In 

. Several similar swords and other weapons also appear in this and other legends.

2The sword in the stone and the sword in the lake

 Caledfwlch appears in several early Welsh works, including the prose tale 

 (c. 11th–12th century). The name was later used in Welsh adaptations of foreign material such as the 

. It is often considered to be related to the phonetically similar 

, a sword borne by several figures from 

 and D. Simon Evans. They suggest instead that both names "may have similarly arisen at a very early date as generic names for a sword". This sword then became exclusively the property of Arthur in the British tradition.

 (potentially influenced by the Medieval Latin spelling 

 [χάλυψ] "steel"). Most Celticists consider Geoffrey's 

 In the late 15th/early 16th-century Middle Cornish play 

, which is etymologically an exact Middle Cornish cognate of the Welsh 

. It is unclear if the name was borrowed from the Welsh (if so, it must have been an early loan, for phonological reasons), or represents an early, 

 (1134–1140), mentions Arthur and his sword: "this Constantine was the nephew of Arthur, who had the sword Caliburc" ("

Cil Costentin, li niès Artur, Ki out l'espée Caliburc

 (c. 1150–1155), an Old French translation and versification of Geoffrey's 

 and it is stated, "for at his belt hung Escalibor, the finest sword that there was, which sliced through iron as through wood"

"Qu'il avoit cainte Escalibor, la meillor espee qui fust, qu'ele trenche fer come fust"

). This statement was probably picked up by the author of the 

, or Vulgate Merlin, where the author (who was fond of fanciful folk etymologies) asserts that Escalibor "is a 

 name which means in French 'cuts iron, steel, and wood'"

"c'est non Ebrieu qui dist en franchois trenche fer & achier et fust"

; note that the word for "steel" here, achier, also means "blade" or "sword" and comes from medieval Latin 

 "sharp", so there is no direct connection with Latin 

 in this etymology). It is from this fanciful etymological musing that 

 got the notion that Excalibur meant "cut steel"

the name of it,' said the lady, 'is Excalibur, that is as moche to say, as Cut stele

The sword in the stone and the sword in the lake[

Arthur draws the sword from the stone in 

 (1906). Here, as in many more modern depictions of this scene, there is no anvil and the sword is lodged directly within the stone itself

"King Arthur asks the Lady of the Lake for the sword Excalibur". 

King Arthur's Knights: The Tales Retold for Boys and Girls

In Arthurian romance, a number of explanations are given for Arthur's possession of Excalibur. In 

, the first tale to mention the "sword in the stone" motif c. 1200, Arthur obtained the British throne by pulling a sword from an anvil sitting atop a stone that appeared in a churchyard on Christmas Eve.

, the act could not be performed except by "the true king", meaning the divinely appointed king or true heir of 

. The scene is set by different authors at either London (

, and might have been inspired by a miracle attributed to the 11th-century Bishop 

 As Malory related in his most famous English-language version of the Arthurian tales, the 15th-century 

: "Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil, is rightwise king born of all England."

 After many of the gathered nobles try and fail to complete Merlin's challenge, the teenage Arthur (who up to this point had believed himself to be son of 

's squire) does this feat effortlessly by accident and then repeats it publicly. The identity of this sword as Excalibur is made explicit in the Prose 

Eventually, in the cycle's finale Vulgate 

, when Arthur is at the brink of death, he orders 

 to cast Excalibur into the enchanted lake. After two failed attempts (as he felt such a great sword should not be thrown away), Griflet finally complies with the wounded king's request and a hand emerges from the lake to catch it. This tale becomes attached to 

, instead of Griflet, in Malory and the English tradition.

 (and consequently Malory), Arthur breaks the Sword from the Stone while in combat against King 

 very early in his reign. On Merlin's advice, he then goes with him to be given Excalibur by a 

 in exchange for a later boon for her (some time later, she arrives at Arthur's court to demand the head of 

). Malory records both versions of the legend in his 

In Welsh legends, Arthur's sword is known as 

, it is one of Arthur's most valuable possessions and is used by Arthur's warrior 

 the Irishman to kill the Irish king Diwrnach while stealing his magical cauldron. Though not named as Caledfwlch, Arthur's sword is described vividly in 

 (as translated by Jeffrey Gantz): "Then they heard 

 being summoned, and saw him rise with Arthur's sword in his hand, with a design of two 

 on the golden hilt; when the sword was unsheathed what was seen from the mouths of the two chimeras was like two flames of fire, so dreadful that it was not easy for anyone to look."

 is the first non-Welsh source to speak of the sword. Geoffrey says the sword was forged in 

 and Latinises the name "Caledfwlch" as 

. When his influential pseudo-history made it to 

, writers altered the name further until it finally took on the popular form 

 (various spellings in the medieval Arthurian romance and chronicle tradition include: 

). The legend was expanded upon in the Vulgate Cycle and in the Post-Vulgate Cycle which emerged in its wake. Both of them included the Prose 

, however the Post-Vulgate authors left out the original 

 continuation from the earlier cycle, choosing to add an original account of Arthur's early days including a new origin for Excalibur. In some versions, Excalibur's blade was engraved with phrases on opposite sides: "Take me up" and "Cast me away" (or similar). In addition, it said that when Excalibur was first drawn in combat, in the first battle testing Arthur's sovereignty, its blade shined so bright it blinded his enemies.

"Queen Morgana Loses Excalibur His Sheath." 

In the later romance tradition, including Malory's 

 is also said to have powers of its own, as any wounds received while wearing it would not bleed at all, thus preventing the wearer from ever bleeding to death in battle. For this reason, Merlin chides Arthur for preferring the sword over its sheath, saying that the latter is the greater treasure. The scabbard is, however, soon stolen from Arthur by his half-sister 

 in revenge for the death of her beloved 

 having been slain by Arthur with Excalibur in a duel involving a false Excalibur (Morgan also secretly makes at least one duplicate of Excalibur during the time when the sword is entrusted to her by Arthur earlier in the different French, Iberian and English variants of that story); the sheath is then thrown by her into a lake and lost. This act later enables the death of Arthur, deprived of its magical protection, many years later in 

. In Malory's telling, the scabbard is never found again; in the Post-Vulgate, however, it is recovered and claimed by another fay, Marsique, who then briefly gives it to Gawain to help him fight Naborn (

In some French works, such as Chrétien's 

 Arthur's nephew and one of his best knights; this is in contrast to most versions, where Excalibur belongs solely to Arthur. A few texts, such as the English 

 tell of Arthur using Excalibur to kill his son 

Historically, a sword identified as Excalibur (Caliburn) was supposedly discovered during the purported exhumation of Arthur's grave at 

 On 6 March 1191, after the Treaty of Messina, either this or another claimed Excalibur was given as a gift of goodwill by the English king 

 It was one of a series of Medieval English symbolic Arthurian acts, such as associating the crown won from the slain Welsh prince 

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