Encyclopedia
Excalibur is the mythical
sword of
King Arthur, sometimes attributed with magical powers or associated with the rightful sovereignty of
Great Britain. Sometimes Excalibur and the
Sword in the Stone are said to be the same weapon, but in most versions they are considered separate. The sword was associated with the
Arthurian legend very early; in
Welsh, the sword was called
Caledfwlch.
Forms and etymologies
The name
Excalibur came from Old French
Excalibor, which came from
Caliburn used in Geoffrey of Monmouth . There are also variant spellings such as
Escalibor and
Excaliber . One theory holds that
Caliburn[us] comes from
Caledfwlch, which in turn comes from
Caladbolg , a legendary
Irish sword . Another theory states that "Caliburnus" is ultimately derived from Latin
chalybs "steel", which is in turn derived from
Kalybes, the name of a
Sarmatian ironworking tribe. Another theory holds that
Excalibur was originally derived from
ensis caliburnus, "Calibian sword", which might point to a
Mediterranean origin. This is noted and used by the historian Valerio Massimo Manfredi in his novel
The Last Legion . According to
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer,
Excalibur was originally derived from the Latin phrase
Ex calce liberatus, "to liberate from the stone". In Malory,
Excalibur is said to mean "cut-steel", which some have interpreted to mean "steel-cutter".
Excalibur and the Sword in the Stone
In surviving accounts of Arthur, there are two originally separate legends about the sword's origin. The first is the "Sword in the Stone" legend, originally appearing in Robert de Boron's poem
Merlin, in which Excalibur can only be drawn from the stone by Arthur, the rightful king. The second comes from the later Post-Vulgate
Suite du Merlin, which was taken up by Sir Thomas Malory. Here, Arthur receives Excalibur from the
Lady of the Lake after breaking his first sword in a fight with King Pellinore. The Lady of the Lake calls the sword "Excalibur, that is as to say as Cut-steel."
As Arthur lay dying, he tells a reluctant
Sir Bedivere to return the sword to the Lake by throwing it into the water. Bedivere thinks the sword too precious to throw away, so twice only pretends to do so. Each time, Arthur asks him to describe what he saw. When Bedevere tells him the sword simply vanished underwater, Arthur scolds him harshly. Finally, Bedivere throws Excalibur into the Lake. Before the sword strikes the water's surface, the hand of the Lady of the Lake reaches up to grasp it and pull it under. Arthur leaves on a death barge with the three queens, where as his legend says, he will one day return to save Britain from a threat.
Malory records both versions of the legend in his
Le Morte d'Arthur is Sir Thomas Malory [i]'s compilation of some French and English [i]...
, and confusingly calls both swords Excalibur. The film
Excalibur attempts to rectify this by having the Lady of the Lake only repair the sword after it is broken.
History
Caledfwlch
In Welsh legend, Arthur's sword is known as
Caledfwlch. In
Culhwch and Olwen, it is one of Arthur's most valuable possessions and is used by Arthur's warrior Llenlleawg the Irishman to kill the Irish king Diwrnach while stealing his magical cauldron. Caledfwlch is thought to derive from the legendary Irish weapon
Caladbolg, the lightning sword of Fergus mac Roich. Caladbolg was also known for its incredible power, and was carried by some of Ireland's greatest heroes.
Caledflwch is vividly described in the
Mabinogion is a collection of prose [i] stories from medieval [i] Welsh [i] ...
:-
- Then they heard Cadwr Earl of Cornwall being summoned, and saw him rise with Arthur's sword in his hand, with a design of two serpents on the golden hilt; when the sword was unsheathed what was seen from the mouths of the two serpents was like two flames of fire, so dreadful that it was not easy for anyone to look. At that the host settled and the commotion subsided, and the earl returned to his tent. "Iddawg, who is the man who brought Arthur's sword?" "Cadwr Earl of Cornwall, the man whose task it is to arm the king on the day of battle and conflict."
from The Dream of Rhonabwy
, from The Mabinogion
, translated by Jeffrey Gantz.
Caliburn to Excalibur
Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain
is the first non-Welsh source to speak of the sword. Geoffrey says the sword was forged in Avalon and Latinizes the name "Caledfwlch" to Caliburn
or Caliburnus
. Continental writers altered the name further — first to Escalibor
, then to Excalibur
— when his influential pseudo-history made it to Continental Europe. The legend was expanded upon in the Vulgate Cycle , also known as the Lancelot-Grail Cycle, and in the Post-Vulgate Cycle which emerged in its wake. Both included the work known as the Prose Merlin
, but the Post-Vulgate authors left out the Merlin Continuation from the earlier cycle, choosing to add an original account of Arthur's early days including a new origin for Excalibur.
Other information
The story of the Sword in the Stone has an analogue in some versions of the story of
Sigurd , who draws his father
Sigmund's sword out of a tree where it is embedded.
Interestingly, in several early
French works such as Chrétien de Troyes'
Perceval, the Story of the Grail and the Vulgate
Lancelot Proper section, Excalibur is used by
Gawain, Arthur's nephew and one of his best knights. This is in contrast to later versions, where Excalibur belongs solely to the king. In the
Alliterative Morte Arthure , Arthur is said to have two legendary swords, the second one being Clarent, stolen by the evil
Mordred. Arthur receives his fatal blow from Clarent.
According to some speculators, the legend of the Sword in the Stone is possibly a reference and remembrance in storytelling of the techniques of
Bronze Age sword-making technology. Simply described, the technique involved casting a sword using molten bronze into a mold consisting of two halves. There is a hollow in the shape of a sword formed by the two halves. The two halves run the length of the sword, and shape the flat of the blade as well as the handle. The mould halves can be made of hardened clay or of stone. When the molten bronze hardens and the halves are separated, one half is left with a "sword in the stone," resting inside one of the halves. In its own right it is a magical moment, impressive enough to have remained as a poetic image, transformed by writers who did not know or remember the possible origin of the phrase. However, the tales of Arthur apparently first arose in the post-Roman Dark Ages, long after the Bronze Age, though some say he had appeared in legends by then. There may also be a figurative meaning, in that the sword is concealed in the stone in the sense that metal is found as an ore within the earth.
Attributes
In many versions, Excalibur's blade was engraved with words on opposite sides. On one side were the words "take me up", and on the other side "cast me away" . This prefigures its return into the water. Another version, by one Mary Stewart, represented Caliburn as the hereditary sword of the near-legendary warrior
Magnus Maximus; engraved on it the phrase TO HIM UNCONQUERED. By this account, it was taken by Maximus's kinsmen to North
Wales after his death in Italy, later to be retrieved by Merlin the Enchanter and hidden by him on the strange island of Caer Bannog, from which Arthur took it. In addition, when Excalibur was first drawn, Arthur's enemies were blinded by its blade, which was as bright as thirty torches. Excalibur's scabbard was said to have powers of its own. Injuries from losses of
blood, for example, would not kill the bearer. In some tellings, wounds received by one wearing the scabbard did not bleed at all. The scabbard is stolen by
Morgan le Fay and thrown into a lake, never to be found again.
In the book "Sword of the Rightful King" by Jane Yolen, Excalibur is made by Merlinus out of fire and water, Along with a spell causing any
man trying to pull out the sword, other than Arthur, would fail.
The
19th century poet
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, described the sword in full
Romantic detail in his poem "Morte d'Arthur", one of the
Idylls of the King:
- There drew he forth the brand Excalibur,
- And o’er him, drawing it, the winter moon,
- Brightening the skirts of a long cloud, ran forth
- And sparkled keen with frost against the hilt:
- For all the haft twinkled with diamond sparks,
- Myriads of topaz-lights, and jacinth-work
- Of subtlest jewellery.
Video games
Swords named Excalibur or similar occur in some
videogames, for example
Final Fantasy series, the
Soul Calibur is the second game in the
Soul series of fighting game [i]s developed and produced...
series,
,
Tales of Symphonia,
Onimusha Blade Warriors,
Secret of Mana,
,
,
RuneScape,
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game [i] developed by Blizzard Entertainment [i] ...
,
City of Heroes is a massively multiplayer online role-playing [i] computer game [i] based on ...
,
Fate/Stay Night, Ace Combat Zero is a video game [i] that takes place 15 yea ...
,
Nethack is a single-player roguelike [i] computer game [i] originally relea ...
and
.
See also
External links
