The legendary sword of King Arthur Excalibur. Excalibur and other legendary swords
The sword is not just a weapon, it is a true amulet, the strength and glory of which is forged in battles. History has known many swords, among them a special place is occupied by legendary swords that raise the morale of entire nations.
Excalibur
Probably everyone has heard about the legendary Excalibur of King Arthur. It was impossible to break it, and the sheath gave the owner invulnerability.
Excalibur's name probably comes from the Welsh Caledwolch, which can be translated as "heavy smasher". It is first mentioned in the Welsh epic Mabinogion (XI century). According to one version, the name comes from the Latin "chalybs" - steel, and the prefix "exc" meant enhanced properties.
According to one legend, Arthur took out Excalibur from a stone, which proved his right to be king, but in most texts, he received it from the fairy of the lake, after he broke his first sword. Before his death, he ordered to return it to its rightful owner, throwing it into the water.
Behind the myth of Excalibur there is definitely a historical prototype, as well as behind the figure of King Arthur. Only this is not a specific weapon, but a tradition. For example, the custom of flooding weapons in the North and Western Europe. Strabo describes such a ritual among the Celts in the vicinity of Toulouse, archaeological excavations at Torsbjerg testify to the presence of such a tradition in Jutland (weapons date from 60-200 AD).
Durandal
The sword of the nephew of Charlemagne, who terrified enemies, repeated the fate of Excalibur. According to the saga of Charlemagne, he was thrown into the lake after the death of his master Roland during the Battle of Ronceval (778). A later chivalric poem Roland Furious says that a part of it is still kept in the wall of the French sanctuary of Rocamadour.
Its legendary properties were practically the same as those of Excalibur - it was unusually durable, and did not break even when Roland tried to smash it against a rock before his death. Its very name comes from the adjective "dur" - solid. Judging by the frequent references in the sources to the breakdown of swords, the quality of steel was generally weak point medieval warriors.
If Excalibur had a scabbard with special properties, then Durandal had a hilt, where, according to the saga of Charlemagne, holy relics were kept.
Shcherbets
The coronation sword of the Polish monarchs - Shcherbets, according to legend, was given to Prince Borislav the Brave (995-1025) by an angel. And Borislav almost immediately managed to put a notch on it, hitting the Golden Gate of Kyiv. Hence the name "Shcherbets". True, this event is unlikely, since Borislav's campaign against Rus' took place before the actual construction of the Golden Gate in 1037. If only he managed to put a notch, encroaching on the wooden gates of the tsar-grad.
In general, Shcherbets, which has come down to our times, according to experts, was made in the XII-XIII centuries. Perhaps the original sword disappeared along with the rest of the treasures of Poland - the spear of St. Mauritius and the golden diadem of the German emperor Otto III.
Historical sources claim that the sword was used at coronations from 1320 to 1764, when the last Polish king, Stanisław August Poniatowski, was crowned with it. After long wanderings from one collector to another, Szczerbiec returned to Poland in 1959. Today it can be seen in the Krakow Museum.
Sword of Saint Peter
The weapon of the Apostle Peter, with which he cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest, Malchus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, today is another ancient relic of Poland. In 968, Pope John XIII presented it to the Polish Bishop Jordan. Today, the legendary blade, or a later version of it, is kept in the Archdiocese Museum in Poznań.
Naturally, among historians there is no single time on the dating of the sword. Researchers at the Polish Army Museum in Warsaw claim that the sword could have been made in the 1st century AD, but most scholars consider the blade in Poznań to be a late forgery. Experts Martin Glosek and Leszek Kaiser identify it as a copy from the first quarter of the 14th century. This hypothesis coincides with the fact that swords of a similar shape - falchions (a blade expanding towards the bottom with one-sided sharpening) were common in the 14th century as an additional weapon of English archers.
Sword of Dovmont
The relic of Pskov is the sword of the holy Pskov prince Dovmont (? -1299) - "a man of valor and impeccable honor." It was under him that the city gained de facto independence from its older "brother" Novgorod. The prince fought successfully with his original homeland Lithuania and the Livonian Order, more than once saving Pskov from crusader raids.
The sword of Dovmont, with which he allegedly hit the master of the Livonian Order in the face, for a long time hung in the Pskov Cathedral over the shrine of the prince. It was engraved with the inscription "I will not give up my honor to anyone." For the inhabitants of the city, it became a real shrine, with which they blessed all the new princes who entered the service of Pskov; Dovmont's sword was minted on Pskov coins.
Before today The sword arrived in good condition. Even the wooden scabbard, covered with green velvet and bound by a third with silver, has survived. The length of the sword itself is about 0.9 m, the width of the crosshair is 25 cm. In shape, this is a piercing-cutting triangular blade with a rib protruding in the middle. At the top of it, a stamp has been preserved, which indicates that it was made in the German city of Passau. Obviously, it belonged to Dovmont during his life in Lithuania.
Dovmont's sword dates back to the 13th century. To date, this is the only medieval sword in Russia, whose “biography” is well known and confirmed by chronicle reports.
Kusanagi no tsurugi
The Japanese katana "Kusanagi no tsurugi" or "grass-cutting sword", according to legend, helped the first Japanese emperor Jimmu to conquer Japan. Not surprising, because it originally belonged to the wind god Susanno, brother of the sun goddess Amateratsu. He discovered it in the body of the monstrous dragon Yamata no Orochi he had killed, and gave it to his sister. She, in turn, presented it to people as a sacred symbol.
Kusanagi was a shrine of the Isonokami-jingu temple for a long time, where he was transferred by Emperor Shujin. Currently, an iron sword is fixed in the temple. In 1878, during excavations, a large sword blade with a total length of 120 cm was found. It is assumed that this is the legendary Kusanagi no tsurugi.
seven pronged sword
Another national treasure of Japan is the seven-pronged sword Nanatsusaya-no-tachi. It is different from the usual weapons of the country rising sun, first of all, by its shape - it has six branches, and the tip of the blade, obviously, was considered the seventh.
It is not known for certain when it was made, but the main version dates it to the 4th century AD. According to the analysis, the sword was forged in the kingdom of Baekje or Silla (the territory of modern Korea). Judging by the inscriptions on the blade, he came to Japan through China - he was presented as a gift to one of the Chinese emperors. The Japanese epic says that it belonged to the semi-mythical Empress Jingu, who lived approximately in 201-269.
Excalibur is the sword of King Arthur, which was often credited with amazing and magical properties. Today we will tell the legend about him in the words of Thomas Malory, author of the famous Le Morte d'Arthur.
“... And so, in the greatest of the churches of London - whether it was St. Paul's, the French Book does not say - long before the dawn of the day, all the estates of the kingdom gathered for prayer. And when matins and early mass departed, people suddenly saw in the temple courtyard opposite the main altar a large stone with four corners, like a marble tombstone, in the middle on it - like a steel anvil a foot high, and under it - a wonderful sword naked and around it golden inscriptions : "Whoever draws this sword from under the anvil, he is by right of birth the king over all the land of England."
people marveled and told the archbishop about it…” “…Then they [the people] went to the archbishop and told him how the sword was drawn and by whom. And on the day of the Epiphany of the Lord, all the barons gathered there in order to once again try, whoever wishes, to draw the sword, and in the face of all of them, only Arthur managed to pull it out. Many lords were angry and said that it would be a great shame to them and to the whole kingdom if they were ruled by a skinny youth. And such a strife flared up here that it was decided to postpone the matter until the Presentation of the Lord, and then all the barons would come together again, until the same time they sent ten knights to guard the sword day and night, pitched a tent over a stone and a sword, and there were guards five by five ... "Note that in passing, who was Thomas Malory, the author of the book from which the above quotation is taken.
It was a 16th-century knight who was imprisoned for robbery in New Gate Prison in London. Fortunately, he was given the happy opportunity to study there. literary activity. He called his famous work “Le Mort D’Arthure” (“The Death of Arthur”) “A Brief Excerpt from the French Book”, although, in fact, it was not a translation, but a retelling of foreign and local literary works. A prisoner of New Gate, he could visit the nearby library of the monastery of the Order of St. Francis. It is assumed that the total volume literary sources Malory - mostly, by the way, poetry - is five times the volume of the book he wrote himself.
His sources almost certainly included Chretien de Troyes, a 12th-century French poet, and Geoffrey of Monmouth (aka Geoffrey of Monemut), author of the History of the Britons and the Life of Merlin, also dated to the 12th century. Note: Galfrid does not have a legend about the sword in the stone (at least in the edition to which the link is given), but Chrétien de Troy has it. This can be quite significant geographic point vision. Be that as it may, the idea of the Celtic origin of the legend of the sword stuck in the stone (or, according to Malory, under the anvil standing on the stone) prevailed until now.
legendary sword in stone, which is often associated with the legend of King Arthur, exists. He is not in some Avalon, of course, but in Italy. It can be seen in the Montesiepi Chapel, near Saint Galgano Abbey in Chiusdino, Tuscany. The story is like this. Thirty kilometers southeast of Siena stands the dilapidated abbey of San Galgano, once belonging to the Cistercian order (an order adjacent to the Benedictines). This abbey was built just in the XII century, in honor of the memory of the saint, who in the world bore the name of Galgano Guidotti. This Guidotti led a very dissolute life, was arrogant, voluptuous and much in favor of all sorts of violent atrocities. But once he had a vision of the Archangel Michael, and Guidotti, leaving everything, became a hermit, and after his death - in 1181 - he was canonized as a saint.
It is said of him that, as a sign of his renunciation of the world - and war - Guidotti plunged his sword into a stone, which "fell like butter." As a result, only the hilt sticks out of the stone, and three or four centimeters of the blade, forming a cross. According to legend, after the death of Galgano, countless people tried to steal the sword. The chapel also houses the mummified hands of one of the thieves who were left behind after he was attacked by a pack of wolves who were also said to have guarded the sword. Medievalist historian Mario Moiraghi believes that it was this tradition that formed the basis of the Arthurian cycle. This is indirectly supported by the estimated time of the appearance of the works that formed the basis of the later retellings of the Arthurian plot. Chrétien de Troyes wrote his poem "Perceval" which tells the story of the sword in the stone in 1190. Between 1210 and 1220 a German version of the Holy Grail myth was created (also required attribute Arthurian cycles). And its author, Wolfram von Eschenbach, also focused his attention on Perceval (Parzival). As further evidence, Moiragi presents the testimony of Dioniza, the mother of Saint Galgano (or Galganius), before the council of cardinals who decided on the canonization of the deceased in 1190. According to Moiragi, Dionysus outlined “all the main components of the myth of the Round Table”: a knight overcoming all obstacles on the way to his ideal, his search for the Holy Grail (although in Galgano’s vision, it was not the cup from which Christ drank at the Last Supper, but some text whose meaning he could not understand); and in the center of everything is the sword. "Knightly" stories brought by merchants from Persia were very popular in Italy at that time, and especially in Tuscany. Moiragi also found an explanation of where the image of the “Round Table” came from, at which the knights of Arthur sat. Round was the chapel built around the sword in stone. A characteristic detail, by the way: at Malory a tent was erected around the stone, where ten selected knights guarded day and night.
According to Moiragi, later authors could change the name of Galgano to Galvano - so, in the end, Gawain, the son of Morgause and Lot of Orkney, Arthur's nephew and one of his best knights, was born. In one of the stories, Gawain even acted as an envoy of the King of Britain to Rome. Galgano's sword was studied by specialists. Although the sword was thought to be a fake for many years, recent studies have proven that the metal composition and style of the sword is consistent with the period from 1100 to the early 1200s. This is indeed a metal sword, forged, apparently, just at the time when the legendary saint lived. Therefore, he appeared before the Arthurian stories in the retelling of Chrétien de Troyes and others. But this does not mean that the Celts could not have similar plots. And finally: during the study of the Tuscan sword in stone, it turned out that there was some kind of emptiness under it. The church authorities, however, have not yet given permission to move the stone, so scientists do not know what hides the sword in the stone underneath. Nowadays, it is stored under protective glass, still in stone, in the chapel and is available to everyone. By the way, while I was looking for information about this sword, I found another one:
King Arthur obtained this sword with the assistance of the wizard Merlin - he was held over the waters by a mysterious hand (the hand of the Lady of the Lake), after he lost his sword in a duel with Sir Pelinor.
According to legend, Excalibur was forged by the blacksmith god Velund. According to another, it was forged on Avalon.
In some early texts, before falling into the hands of Arthur, it belonged to Gawain.
The sword Excalibur, along with the Holy Grail itself, is a symbol of the legends of King Arthur. Until recently, it was believed that this wonderful weapon was invented by medieval authors of novels about the round table, but recently it has been proven that the mention of the magic sword of the great king appeared in the earliest legends about Arthur, then, the sword was called Caliburn, and "ex" - just an amplifying particle added much later.
Two explanations were found for the original name of the sword. Firstly, it could come from the name of another legendary sword Caledfolch, stubbornly found in many ancient Celtic legends. In this case, it translates as "lightning, flash." The lightning sword of the pagan thunder god had a similar name.
The second version says that the word "Caliburn" comes from the Latin word "chalybs", meaning "steel".
But anyway, Excalibur, great sword King Arthur - a symbol of courage and honor, a sword that cannot be broken even in the most terrible battle.
In some sources, Excalibur is called the Sword in the Stone, the one that, according to the prophecy of Merlin, the future king of England was to free from under the stone slab. But this version is considered to be erroneous. The sword with which Arthur proved his right to the throne was broken in one of the first battles of the knights. round table and had no magical powers.
Excalibur was forged by the hands of the immortals in the forges of the beautiful Avallon and handed over to Arthur by the mistress of the lake, who ordered the sword to be returned to where it came from on time. Arthur couldn't stop admiring the shining blade with its jeweled hilt, and didn't heed Merlin's warnings that the sword was not as important as its unsightly scabbard, for the wearer was invulnerable in battle.
The scabbard was soon lost, but the sword faithfully served its master until the end of its life. And it was his blade that mortally wounded Mordred, Arthur's last adversary. Weak from wounds and feeling imminent death, the king called to him the only knight left alive. And, giving him Excalibur, he ordered to throw it into the enchanted lake. But, seeing how beautiful this sword was, the knight decided to keep it for himself, hid it, and returned to his dying master. The same, sensing something was wrong, asked what happened when the precious sword touched the surface of the water. The knight did not find what to answer, confessed to deceit and, ashamed, returned to the lake, for a long time he could not part with the beautiful blade, and when he finally threw it, he saw a woman's hand that caught the sword just above the water and immediately disappeared. The knight told Arthur about this, and he fearlessly left the world, having fulfilled his last duty, returning the magic sword to the lake, as he promised.
The strange fate of the sword, which emerged from the lake and returned there, most likely comes from the ancient Celtic custom of submerging weapons. An exact explanation for this custom has not yet been found, but weapons are still found in the reservoirs of Europe to this day. Moreover, it was proved that it did not get there by chance, not broken, not even damaged, it has only traces of ritual, staged battles. The lakes, in which especially richly decorated blades were found, are still surrounded by legends and beliefs. Scientists suggest that in the first centuries of our era they were considered sacred. It was also believed that the priestess, who was in charge of the lake, could get a sword from its bowels and give it to the most worthy with only one condition: having served its owner, the blade must return to the sacred reservoir.
Answers to other Golden Fleece questions can be found
Sword Excalibur is one of the most mysterious myths associated with King Arthur. Today we will talk about King Arthur and his glorious sword Excalibur.
The greatest Western European Legend, the Historia Regum Britanniae, written in Latin around 1135 by Geoffroy de Monmouth and translated into Old French twenty years later by the Norman Robert Weiss, first mentions the magic sword of King Arthur under the name Caliburn.
Narrating the historical Battle of Badon, during which King Arthur successfully repulsed the Saxon invasion, the author tells how Arthur, having overshadowed himself with a precious sword made on the sacred island of the Celts of Avalon, rushed into the thick of the battle, hitting the enemies with the first blow. The legend testifies that the king killed four hundred and seventy warriors with his only weapon - the sword Caliburn. Magical properties are attributed to this sword to cut the blades of other swords, while remaining unharmed and preserving its owner, who must have a pure heart.
Sword Excalibur.
The origin of the sword has two versions, which somewhat contradict each other.
According to the first version, it was made by the magician Merlin, who, by the power of magic, imprisoned him in a large stone and wrote on it that whoever could extract the sword from the stone would become the king of all Britain by right of his birth.
How did Arthur get this sword?
His father, Uther Pendragon, whose last name translates as "dragon slayer", was a just and wise king. Trying to get along with the gods and express their will on earth, the king kept with him the adviser Merlin, wise man, who became famous for his ability to communicate with the Spirits of nature. No one knew where this Merlin came from under the king. It was said that he was born on mysterious island Avalon, from where he came one day, but no one knew where this island was located.
Merlin appeared unexpectedly in difficult times for the kingdom, and also unexpectedly disappeared when everything fell into place. On the night when King Uther's son Arthur was born, he suddenly came in flashes of lightning and asked to give him the boy. The king implicitly complied with Merlin's wish, especially since the sage said that it would be better for the kingdom. No one in the whole kingdom knew that the king had an heir. He disappeared with Merlin.
Various legends speak differently about the subsequent fate of young Arthur. One part of the legends claims that Arthur was brought up by the knight Ector under the constant supervision of Merlin, and the second part says that Arthur lived for seventeen years with the sage Merlin himself on the island of Avalon.
King Uther never saw his heir again, and before his death he decided to entrust the fate of Britain to Merlin, the only person whom he trusted. By virtue of his foresight, Merlin leaves the decision on the fate of the future kingdom to the will of the gods, because he believed that fair rule should be restored in the kingdom of Britain and not a single person can decide who is fair and who is not.
Merlin points to the stone in which the sword is hidden and waits for a sign from above, which will indicate who will get this sword. Many knights tried their strength, trying to extract from the stone. But Merlin knew perfectly well that it was not a matter of physical strength but in the strength of the spirit, in the ability to live not for oneself, but for others.
A variety of knights tried to get the place of king for themselves. Arthur was also among them, but not as a knight, but as a page of his named brother Kay, who lost his sword through carelessness and asked Arthur to get him a new one. Without thinking twice, Arthur took out a magic stone and brought it to Kay instead of the lost one.
Kei immediately realized what an opportunity fate was giving him, because this sword was unrecognizable. Without hesitation, he went with him to Merlin. But Merlin could not be deceived, and he ordered Kay to insert the sword back into the stone and show all the people how he pulled it out of there. Kay had no choice but to tell the truth.
Thus, the unknowing and unaware page in an instant becomes the king of Britain, who ruled justly and wisely, taking care of the humiliated, poor, offended and continuing the traditions of his father Uther.
The second version of the origin of the Excalibur sword tells that King Arthur once received it from the fairy of the forest lake when he passed by it. He saw that from the middle of the lake rose a hand in a sleeve of luxurious silk, clutching a wonderful sword, shining like hundreds of torches in the night. The Lady of the Lake approached Arthur through the water and explained to King Arthur that it was magical, which was waiting for a worthy knight. Arthur expressed a very passionate desire to master this sword and the Lady of the Lake allowed Arthur to take the sword and ordered him to take it out of its scabbard only in the right fight. She also said that the sword and scabbard would always be with Arthur, for the sword and scabbard are magical and able to protect the king from wounds.
Various legends are associated with the sword Excalibur. According to some, this sword was stolen from the king and killed with it. According to others, the sword was always with Arthur and he returned it to the Lady of the Lake before his death, when he suffered his first and only defeat. And allegedly the Lady of the Lake took the dying king to the mythical island of Avalon, symbolizing other world where Arthur is still waiting for his return to Britain.
