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[faynia.livejournal.com]

Does anyone know what Mordred used to kill Arthur? Was it ever mentioned in any versions of the legends?

Comments

[maudelynn.livejournal.com]

with his sword... usually bringing it down on arthur's head or running him through
it is pretty standard to every telling...

http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/jshoaf/Arthmort.html

[faynia.livejournal.com]

I thought as much. I knew he got clocked with something, I just wasn't sure if it was in fact a sword or something else.

And yay! A link! I love those!

[maudelynn.livejournal.com]

Since most of the tellings are now in the public domain, due to the time that has elapsed, you can find many of them online.
:)

[faynia.livejournal.com]

Shush, I'm allowed to be lazy every so often. ;) But you're probably right, and really I have Once and Future King sitting beside me on a bookshelf, it's just downright laziness that made me ask.

[maudelynn.livejournal.com]

The once and future king has always been one of my favourites.
John Matthews has also written some interesting books with Arthurian legends as the basis.
Good luck

[maudelynn.livejournal.com]

I am sure this is saying Mordred struck Arthur with his sword

There he met Mordred and with full malice said,
"Turn, untrue traitor, your time is up!
But the great God I shall give you your death-blow.,
And no rescue or ransom shall reach you from any man!"
The sovereign struck him staunchly with Excalibur,
Shearing off the corner of the shining shield
And hitting a hand's-breadth deep into the shoulder,
So that the bright red blood blazoned the mail.
Mordred shuddered and shivered, but shrank back little,
Rather shot forward sharply in his shining gear,
And the felon struck fiercely with that fine sword,
Ripping through the rib-plates on Arthur's right side.
Through surcoat and hauberk of armoured steel
the hilding hacked off a half-foot of flesh.
That deadly blow brought his death, and dread pity it was
That the dauntless man should die but by God's deeming!

In this one it may his lance that he hits Arthur with,

When Mordred realized how badly he was wounded, he knew it was to the death. He struck King Artu so hard on the helmet that it could not protect his head from the sword, and he cut off a piece of the head itself.

And then, in Malory's version Mordred is wounded by Arthur with a spear then Mordred strikes Arthur on the head with his sword

and ryght so he smote hys fadir, kynge Arthure, with hys swerde holdynge in both hys hondys, uppon the syde of the hede, that the swerde perced the helmet and the tay of the brayne. And therewith Mordred daysshed downe starked ded to the erthe.

[gwalchmai2007.livejournal.com]

In the very first mention of Arthur and Mordred together, it merely says that they both died in the same battle. There is nothing to suggest that they slew each other, nor is there any basis for the two even fighting on opposite sides. The notion that Mordred fought against Arthur came around the time of Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain. From the Penguin Classics Edition translated by Lewis Thorpe and dated 1986, page 261, Arthur and his men slaughtered many of Mordred's forces and Mordred himself; however, in the battle, Arthur is mortally wounded. Nothing suggests that Mordred dealt the wound.

It has been a long time since I have had the really hardcore poems in the cycle in my library after Geoffrey, so I am unsure of when the element of Mordred slaying Arthur personally is introduced to the legend. Certainly by the time of the Alliterative Morte Arthur, Mordred deals the mortal wound to Arthur. Could the poster of the last comment please provide the source of the quote? Is that the Alliterative Morte in translation? It has been so long that I am having some trouble identifying the lines.

[maudelynn.livejournal.com]

Hey!
The link, in the comment way above, has the things I quoted from!