What was the excalibur, king arthur s sword.?
The sword is called Excalibur by Sir Thomas Malory in his “Le Morte d’Arthur”. It is generally called Escalibor or Caliburn in medieval French texts. In Welsh texts it is called Kaletvwlch, usually modernized as Caledvwlch. The name may be related to Caledcolg (‘hard blade’) or Caledbolg (‘hard belly’ or ‘hard lightning’), the name of the sword of Fergus mac Leide and Fergus mac Roch in Irish tales. It is first mentioned by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his “Historia Regem Britainnia” as Arthur’s sword which was forged in Avalon. See http://www.lib.rochester.edu/CAMELOT/geo… and search on “Caliburn”. According to the French Prose Vulgate Merlin, Escalibor was in origin the sword in the stone which proved that Arthur was to be the rightful king. According to French Prose Post-Vulgate Merlin, it was not the same as the sword in the stone, but was given to Arthur later by a lake fay. Both tales appear appear in a mixe
