One of the most wondrous artifacts in history is arguably King Arthur’s magic sword. Like many aspects of Arthurian legend, the sword has names and origins that differ between sources. It appears for the first time around 1136 in theHistory of the Kings of Brittany of Geoffrey of Monmouth under the name of Caliburn, a story in which Arthur used it to kill 470 men single-handedly. In the work of Thomas Malory, dating from the 15e century and detailing the legend of Arthur, the latter extracts the miraculous sword from a stone when he is still only a child. In this same story, it is an enchantress, the Lady of the Lake, who presents the sword to Arthur. As he was dying after his last battle, he asked his faithful Bédivère to throw her into the lake; an arm (probably that of the Lady of the Lake) came out of the water to grab it, then disappeared into the depths.
However, until historians find stronger evidence for the existence of a real King Arthur, the existence of a real Excalibur will also remain unlikely. Doubt persists, however. In 2017, a 7-year-old girl bathing in a Cornish lake, known to be the one mentioned in Malory’s artwork, found a medieval-style sword at the bottom. The press dubbed it Excalibur, although the little girl’s more pragmatic father said, “It’s probably just an old movie prop.”
(Read: Knights, superheroes of the Middle Ages.)
THE HOLY GRAIL
From medieval tales of sacred quests to Indiana Jones films, the Holy Grail has long been the most coveted Christian relic, though its existence remains obscured by many different, and sometimes conflicting, stories. The first major reference to this object appears in Perceval, or the Tale of the Grail of Chrétien de Troyes, dating from the 12e century, in which the Grail contains a single host capable of sustaining all life. Soon after, it was associated with the Last Supper in the writings of Robert de Boron, who claims it was used to collect the blood of Christ after his crucifixion.
Various Arthurian stories follow the adventures of knights such as Perceval and Gilead in their quests for the source of life, the Grail. Not one, but two Grails were discovered in medieval Europe. The first, kept in its own chapel in Valencia Cathedral, is a reddish-brown agate cup that dates from the time of Christ. The other, kept in the cathedral of Genoa, is a medieval dish in green colored glass which is believed to have healing powers. Both can still be admired today.
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