Editing Excalibur (section)

==Legend==
=== The Sword in the Stone and the Sword in the Lake ===
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| image1 = An island story; a child's history of England (1906) (14801002423).jpg
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| image2 = CRANE King Arthur asks the lady of the lake for the sword Excalibur.jpg
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| caption1 = Arthur draws the sword from the stone in [[Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall]]'s ''[[Our Island Story]]'' (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
| caption2 = "King Arthur asks the Lady of the Lake for the sword Excalibur". [[Walter Crane]]'s illustration for [[Henry Gilbert (author)|Henry Gilbert]]'s ''King Arthur's Knights: The Tales Retold for Boys and Girls'' (1911)}}

Romance tradition elaborates on how Arthur came into possession of Excalibur. In [[Robert de Boron|Robert de Boron's]] c. 1200 French poem ''[[Merlin (Robert de Boron poem)|Merlin]]'', the first known tale to mention the "sword in the stone" motif, Arthur obtained the British throne by pulling a sword from an anvil sitting atop a stone that appeared in a churchyard on Christmas Eve.<ref>Bryant, Nigel (ed, trans), Merlin and the Grail: Joseph of Arimathea, Merlin, Perceval: the Trilogy of Prose Romances Attributed to Robert de Boron, DS Brewer, 2001, p. 107ff.</ref> In this account, as foretold by [[Merlin]], the act could not be performed except by "the true king", meaning the [[Divine right of kings|divinely appointed king]] or true heir of [[Uther Pendragon]]. (As [[Thomas Malory]] related in his English-language Arthurian compilation, the 15th-century ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]'', "whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil, is rightwise king born of all England."<ref>Sir Thomas Malory, William Caxton. ''Morte Darthur: Sir Thomas Malory's Book of King Arthur and of His Noble Knights of the Round Table''. p. 28. J. B. Lippincott and Company, 1868.</ref><ref group="lower-alpha">This line from Malory is also quoted in the 1938 Arthurian novel ''[[The Sword in the Stone (novel)|The Sword in the Stone]]'' by British author [[T. H. White]] as well as its [[The Sword in the Stone (1963 film)|Disney adaptation]].</ref>) The scene is set by different authors at either explicitly London (historical [[Londinium]]) or generally in the land of [[Logres]] (which can be a city and also associated with London<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ywEEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA267 | title=The Arthur of the French: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval French and Occitan Literature | date=15 October 2020 | publisher=University of Wales Press | isbn=978-1-78683-743-1 }}</ref>), and might have been inspired by a miracle attributed to the 11th-century bishop [[Wulfstan (died 1095)|Wulfstan of Worcester]].<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27870843|jstor = 27870843|title = The Staff in the Stone: Finding Arthur's Sword in the 'Vita Sancti Edwardi' of Aelred of Rievaulx|last1 = Dutton|first1 = Marsha L.|journal = Arthuriana|year = 2007|volume = 17|issue = 3|pages = 3–30|doi = 10.1353/art.2007.0018|s2cid = 162363447|url-access = subscription}}</ref> 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 biological son of [[Sir Ector|Ector]] and went there as a squire to his foster brother [[Sir Kay|Kay]], succeeds effortlessly. Arthur first achieves this feat by accident while unaware of the contest and unseen. He then returns the sword to its place in the anvil on a stone, and later repeats the act publicly as Merlin comes to announce his true parentage.

[[File:Dozmary Pool - geograph.org.uk - 1570107.jpg|thumb|left|[[Dozmary Pool]], a lake in Cornwall associated with the legend of Excalibur due to its proximity to [[Slaughterbridge]], a potential location of the [[Battle of Camlann]]<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mVkoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT66 | title=The Lost Tomb of King Arthur: The Search for Camelot and the Isle of Avalon | isbn=9781591437581 | last1=Phillips | first1=Graham | date=11 April 2016 | publisher=Simon and Schuster }}</ref>]]

The identity of this sword as Excalibur is made explicit in the Prose ''Merlin'', a part of the thirteenth-century ''[[Lancelot-Grail]]'' cycle of French romances also known as the ''Vulgate Cycle''.<ref>Micha, Alexandre (ed.). ''Merlin: roman du XIIIe siècle'' (Geneva: Droz, 1979).</ref> Eventually, in the cycle's finale Vulgate ''Mort Artu'', when Arthur is at the brink of death, he enigmatically orders his surviving knight [[Griflet]] to cast Excalibur into a nearby lake. After two failed attempts to deceive Arthur, since Griflet felt that such a great sword should not be thrown away, he finally does comply with the wounded king's request. A woman's hand emerges from the lake to catch Excalibur, after which [[Morgan le Fay|Morgan]] appears in a boat to take Arthur to [[Avalon]]. This motif then became attached to [[Bedivere]] (or [[Yvain]] in the chronicle ''[[Scalacronica]]''), instead of Griflet, in the English Arthurian tradition.{{sfn|Lacy|1996}}

However, in the subsequent [[Post-Vulgate Cycle]] variants of the ''Merlin'' and the ''Merlin Continuation'', written soon afterwards, Arthur's sword drawn from the stone is unnamed. Furthermore, the young Arthur promptly breaks it in his duel against King [[Pellinore]] very early in his reign. On Merlin's advice, Arthur then goes with him to be given the actual Excalibur by a [[Lady of the Lake]] in exchange for a later boon for her (some time later, she arrives at Arthur's court to demand the head of [[Sir Balin|Balin]]). In the Post-Vulgate ''Mort Artu'', it is this sword that is eventually hurled into the pool [[Battle of Camlann|at Camlann]] (or actually [[Salisbury Plain]] where both cycles locate the battle, as do the English romances) by Griflet in the same circumstances as told in the story's Vulgate version. Malory included both of these stories in his now-iconic ''Le Morte d'Arthur'' while naming each of the swords as Excalibur: both the first one (from the stone), soon shattered in combat in a story taken from the Post-Vulgate ''Merlin Continuation'', and its replacement (from the lake), returned by Bedivere in the end.{{sfn|Malory|1997|p=[http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/MaloryWks2/1:2?rgn=div1;view=fulltext 7]}}{{sfn|Malory|1997|p=[http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/MaloryWks2/1:3.7?rgn=div2;view=fulltext 46]}}

=== Other roles and attributes ===
In the Welsh tales, 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. Though not named as Caledfwlch, Arthur's sword is described vividly in ''[[The Dream of Rhonabwy]]'', one of the tales associated with the ''[[Mabinogion]]'' (as translated by Jeffrey Gantz): "Then they heard [[Cador|Cadwr Earl of Cornwall]] being summoned, and saw him rise with Arthur's sword in his hand, with a design of two [[Chimera (mythology)|chimeras]] 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."{{sfn|Gantz|1987|p=184}}<ref group="lower-alpha">Nineteenth-century poet [[Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson|Alfred, Lord Tennyson]], described the sword in full [[Romanticism|Romantic]] detail in his poem "Morte d'Arthur", later rewritten as "The Passing of 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."''</ref>

Geoffrey's ''Historia'' is the first non-Welsh text to speak of the sword. Geoffrey says the sword was forged in Avalon and Latinises the name Caledfwlch as ''Caliburnus''. When his influential pseudo-history made it to continental Europe, writers altered the name further until it finally took on the popular form ''Excalibur''. Its role was expanded upon in the Vulgate Cycle and in the Post-Vulgate Cycle which emerged in its wake. Both of these prose cycles incorporated the Prose ''Merlin''. However, the Post-Vulgate authors left out the original ''Merlin'' 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 shone so bright it blinded his enemies.<ref>Malory writes in the [[Winchester Manuscript]]: "''thenne he drewe his swerd Excalibur, but it was so breyght in his enemyes eyen that it gaf light lyke thirty torchys.''"</ref>

In [[Chrétien de Troyes]]' late 12th-century Old French [[Perceval, the Story of the Grail|''Perceval'']], Arthur's nephew and best knight [[Gawain]] carries Excalibur, "for at his belt hung Escalibor, the finest sword that there was, which sliced through iron as through wood"<ref>Bryant, Nigel (trans., ed.). ''Perceval: The Story of the Grail'', DS Brewer, 2006, p. 69.</ref> ("{{lang|fro|Qu'il avoit cainte Escalibor, la meillor espee qui fust, qu'ele trenche fer come fust}}"<ref>Roach, William. ''Chrétien De Troyes: Le Roman De Perceval ou Le Conte Du Graal'', Librairie Droz, 1959, p. 173.</ref>). This statement was probably picked up by the author of the ''Estoire Merlin'', or Vulgate ''Merlin'', where the author asserts that Escalibor "is a [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] name which means in French 'cuts iron, steel, and wood{{'"}}<ref>Loomis, R. S. ''Arthurian Tradition and Chrétien de Troyes'', Columbia, 1949, p. 424.</ref> ("{{lang|fro|c'est non Ebrieu qui dist en franchois trenche fer & achier et fust}}"; the word for 'steel' here, ''achier'', also means 'blade' or 'sword') and comes from medieval Latin {{lang|la|aciarium}}, a derivative of {{lang|la|acies}} 'sharp', so there is no direct connection with Latin {{lang|la|chalybs}}). It is from this fanciful etymological musing that Thomas Malory got the notion that Excalibur meant 'cut steel'<ref>Vinaver, Eugène (ed.) ''The works of Sir Thomas Malory'', Volume 3. Clarendon, 1990, p. 1301.</ref> ({{"'}}''the name of it,' said the lady, 'is Excalibur, that is as moche to say, as cut stele''{{'"}}).

[[File:Arthur-Pyle Queen Morgana loses Excalibur His Sheath.JPG|thumb|upright=1.1|"Queen Morgana Loses Excalibur His Sheath." [[Howard Pyle]]'s illustration for ''[[The Story of King Arthur and His Knights]]'' (1903)]]

In the Post-Vulgate version, used in Malory's ''Le Morte d'Arthur'' for the second Excalibur, the sword's [[scabbard]] 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 Excalibur over its sheath, saying that the latter is the greater treasure. The scabbard is, however, soon stolen from Arthur by his half-sister [[Morgan le Fay]] in revenge for the death of her beloved [[Accolon]], he 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). During Morgan's flight from the pursuit by Arthur, the sheath is then thrown by her into a deep lake and lost. This act later enables the death of Arthur, deprived of its magical protection, many years later in [[Battle of Camlann|his final battle]]. 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 the Enchanter (a [[Mabon ap Modron|Mabon]] figure).<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=klsMZ41xAREC&pg=PA203|title=Lancelot-Grail|first=Norris J.|last=Lacy|date=6 August 2010|publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd|isbn=9781843842385|via=Google Books}}</ref>

As mentioned above, Excalibur is wielded also by Gawain in some French romances, including the Vulgate ''Lancelot''.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CzxyQLoj3a8C&pg=PA188|title=Sir Gawain: Knight of the Goddess|first=John|last=Matthews|date=25 March 2003|publisher=Inner Traditions / Bear & Co|isbn=9780892819706|via=Google Books}}</ref> The Prose ''Merlin'' also uniquely tells of Gawain killing the Roman leader [[Lucius Tiberius|Lucius]] with Excalibur.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UTNrEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA383|title=Prose Merlin|first=John|last=Conlee|date=1 September 1998|publisher=ISD LLC|isbn=9781580444163 |via=Google Books}}</ref> This is, however, in contrast to most versions, where Excalibur belongs solely to Arthur. A few texts, such as the English [[Alliterative Morte Arthure|Alliterative ''Morte Arthure'']] and one copy of the Welsh ''Ymddiddan Arthur a'r Eryr'',<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.heroicage.org/issues/1/habcg.htm |title=Brigantia, Cartimandua and Gwenhwyfar |publisher=The Heroic Age |date= |accessdate=2022-08-04}}</ref> tell of Arthur using Excalibur to kill his son [[Mordred]] (in the first of these, he also uses it to kill Lucius). In the Iberian post-Arthurian romance ''Florambel de Lucea'', Morgan later gifts Excalibur (''Esclariber'') to the eponymous hero.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BcAmDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT184 | title=The Arthur of the Iberians: The Arthurian Legends in the Spanish and Portuguese Worlds | isbn=9781783162437 | last1=Hook | first1=David | date=15 June 2015 | publisher=University of Wales Press }}</ref> Another late Iberian romance, ''[[Tirant lo Blanch]]'', features Arthur who was brought back to life by Morgan and then wandered the world for a long time while mad and able to talk only when having Excalibur in his hands. Finally, Morgan finds her brother imprisoned in the contemporary (15th-century) [[Constantinople]], where she restores him to his mind by making him gaze upon his reflection in Excalibur's blade.