Ask me about King Arthur!

[Lily Maeve La Fey]

I was introduced to the legends of King Arthur and his knights of the round table and have since become obsessed with the great king of Albion. I have studied various renditions of the stories including both medieval and contemporary stories. If you have any questions, throw them my way and I'll do my best to answer them!

 

[Philster401]

I have one question, I know part of the answer already I also have done a bit of research on the Arthurian legends mainly, Avalon, Merlin and his swords. how many different swords have been mentioned in relatance to king Arthur and what were thier names?

 

[Philster401]

Without looking online this is to see if you mean what you say.

 

[Philster401]

Without looking online this is to see if you mean what you say.

 

[Lily Maeve La Fey]

Ugh lots. Celts had this thing with sacred spears and swords...But I'll do this without consulting my "Arthurian Library" (if you can call ten books a library) and "ta interwebs".

There were the two everyone knows about off hand:

Caliburn or Caleachbyrne (medieval authors do hate consistant spelling!), and this was the kingsword Arthur had pulled from the stone outside Canterbury church. Melin had crafted this one himself in some tales or it was made by elves/fey/sidhe for the rightful king of Albion. I forget which battle he broke the sword in, but when the sword broke Merlin took him to Avalon to receive the most famous sword in history.

Excalibur! Forged by the sidhe of the lake with deep magic and given to him by the Lady of the Lake Nyneve. The sword would never break and the sheath would heal all wounds. Of course Arthur dies because in the battle of Camlann because he loses the sheath.

There is a third sword between these two that were famous. It was a treacherous blade though and it was taken up by Bedivere only in most tales.

 

[Philster401]

Wow you do know your stuff you got all three swords Excalibur, Clarent, and Clarence. The sword of the true king, sword of peace and the cowards sword . Not correct order i don't think though

 

[Philster401]

Caliburn not Clarence made mistakes and.it was cowards blad,e sword in the stone/anvil and, The war sword

 

[Lily Maeve La Fey]

The name of the kingsword and the coward's blade unfortunately were never consistent...which is why even scholars make "mistakes". You have a legend with uncertain origins that evolved over 500 years, so lots do happen. Thank you for testing though, might make people feel better about asking questions.

 

[Philster401]

Welcome I wasn't sure how you would take it, I'm glad you took it well, and yeah trying to get any good information on the Arthurian legends, by the way how much do you know about the myths on Atlantis. I love finding out more stuff about myths on Atlantis and Arthurian legends.

 

[Philster401]

And isn't it more like 800 years?

 

[Butterfly]

more like 1500years. Took place in the dark ages which began when Rome left Britain.

 

[Lily Maeve La Fey]

Dark Lord Butterfly is right. 500 years wouldn't take us as far back. I don't know why I said that...it's weird you can recognize "dark ages" and years 500-1500, but it's astounding when you actually consider how far back it all was.

 

[Philster401]

I know 500 AD is when it supposedly happened i was talking about first known book was about1200AD, 800 hundred years ago, I thought.

 

[Philster401]

Actually I looked it up first reliable written account was in 830 A.D., history of Britain but called him a warrior, not a king, originally was written in Celtic, it wasn't until around 1200 A.D. that the story of King Arthur was first written in English.