Quest for King Arthur

[chthonic-gnome.livejournal.com]

Any thoughts on the History Channel special?

I thought it was really good, though a lot of times it lost track and focused on the evolution of the literary Arthur rather than the historical Arthur(s) like it intended to do.

I found it interesting that they chose to include the more recent version of the Excalibur tale, when in fact the Sword first originated as belonging to Galahad--Arthur was not pure enough to touch Excalibur.

I'd be really interested to see a special more devoted to the evolution of the literature, though I suppose that can be gauged by several years of intense reading :)

Comments

[ladyshrew.livejournal.com]

Where are you getting the Galahad story?

I'm pretty sure it's always been Arthur's sword, except for a mention of Gawain that was later turned into Arthur having given Gawain the sword. And I just checked the Arthurian Name Dictionary, and they don't have *any* mention of Excalibur requiring purity or Galahad ever having the sword.

In fact, the first line of the entry for Excalibur is "King Arthur's sword, called Caliburn in earlist accounts." I believe that's in reference to Geoffrey, and Caliburn is certainly Arthur's sword.

Galahad's sword

[chthonic-gnome.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the confusion. I should have mentioned my source as being The Quest of the Holy Grail from the Vulgate Cycle, aka Lancelot-Grail Cycle. Certainly, there are precursors to Excalibur such as the Caliburn you mention, but the pulling-sword-out-of-stone-makes-Arthur-king bit is a creation of Malory, if I'm not mistaken. The Vulgate Cycle predates Malory by at least 200 years and includes the first instance of a "sword in stone" situation. I'm including an excerpt here...

Even as they talked a page came in and said to the king:

'Sire, I bring you news of a great wonder.'

'What is it? Tell me quickly.'

'Below your palace, Sire, I saw a great stone floating on the water. Come and look for yourself for I know it signifies some strange adventure.'

The king and his barons went down at once to see this marvel. When they came to the river bank, they found a great stone lying now by the water's edge. Held fast in its red marble was a sword, superb in its beauty, with a pommel carved from a precious stone cunnningly inlaid with letters of gold. The barons examined the inscription which read: NONE SHALL TAKE ME HENCE BUT HE AT WHOSE SIDE I AM TO HANG. AND HE SHALL BE THE BEST KNIGHT IN THE WORLD. When the king saw the lettering he turned to Lancelot and said:

'Good Sir, this sword is yours by right, for I know you without a doubt fo the best knight in the world.'

But Lancelot answered abruptly:

'Indeed, Sire, this sword is not meant for me, neither have I the courage nor the audacity to lay hand on it, for I am in no way worthy or fit to wear it...'

...

When the king saw that Lancelot would not be prevailed upon, he addressed himself to Sir Gawain:

'Good nephew, you try your hand.'

...

Sir Gawain thrust out his hand and grasped the sword by the hilt, but tug as he would, he could not move it.

...(later Galahad comes along)...

The king then said to Galahad:

'Sir, here is the adventure I told you of. Some of the most valiant knights of my household have today failed to pluck this sword from the stone.'

'Sire,' said Galahad, 'that is not to be wondered at, for the adventure was not theirs but mine. I was so sure of this sword that I came to court without one, as you may have seen.'

Then he took hold of the sword and drew it as easily from the stone as if it had never been fast; and he sheathed it in the scabbard.

Later it turns out that Galahad was the only one pure enough to carry the sword, and the only one pure enough to succeed in the Quest for the Grail.

I hope this is helpful! :)

Re: Galahad's sword

[ladyshrew.livejournal.com]

Ahh gotcha.

I knew there was something wrong with the Arthurian Name Dictionary when it was calling Bors a "famous" knight. ;-)

But yeah, the pulling swords from stones is... way older than Arthur anyway. :-/ But I'm not familiar with Vulgate Cycle, so uhh... shame on me! ;-)

Re: Galahad's sword

[chthonic-gnome.livejournal.com]

Oh I definitely reccommend the Vulgate...very important piece of Arthurian lit. It includes the Prose Merlin about Merlin's life (imagine that!), The Quest of the Holy Grail, The Death of King Arthur, and the Prose Lancelot. The book (or collection of books) is so huge you can probably kill an adult horse just by dropping them on him. Beware, it's like reading an even more! religious version of the Bible...you'll want to kill yourself throughout the whole thing, but if you're lucky enough to get through, it'll be worth it! The Prose Merlin is especially fascinating :)

Re: Galahad's sword

[ladyshrew.livejournal.com]

LOL! Yeah, I knew of it, just haven't gotten to reading it... It's definitely on my list though. ;-)

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

Caladwalch also, iirc, in the Welsh (not sure about spelling, though). I would consider these swords to be Excalibur, regardless of whether they're pulled from a stone or not -- Excalibur has plenty of other roles in the legend which the earlier swords do have.

[ladyshrew.livejournal.com]

Yes, that too. I don't have the spelling handy, atm, either, sadly. But I've just never heard of Galahad as having the sword before Arthur in any of the older texts. I could be wrong, but the Arthurian Name Dictionary didn't seem to think so either, and I'd checked both other entries too.