Where did the "Sword in the Stone" story originate from?
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ANSWERS: 3
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If it is the same story, it evolved over many years and refers to the legend of King Arthur. The legend goes that Arthur pulled a sword from the stone and by that became the rightful King of Britain. This sword is sometimes confused with the Excalibur. See below link. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A519491
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Unknown. Some Arthurian legends don’t seem to know anything about this story. In Norse legend Beorn magically forced three weapons into the rock of a cave wall, and when each of his three sons came of age, each tried to gain a weapon. The youngest, Boðvar-Bjarki, gained the sword. In the Volsunga Saga the god Óðin pushed a sword into an oak tree, which sword could only be removed by the greatest warrior, in this case Sigmund. In Greek mythology after Aegeus of Athens lay with princess Aithra of Troizen, he placed his sword and sandels under an enormous rock, and ordered that if Aithra bore him a son, he should not be told his parentage until he was able to retrieve the sword and sandals. The son, Theseus, did so at age eighteen. Dr. Linda Malcor traces this motif back to Scythian/Sarmatian culture, but her theories are not generally accepted except among her own followers.
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Robert de Boron’s account of the Arthurian Sword in the Stone is usually dated to the last two decades of the twelfth century, about the time that St. Galgano’s miracle was supposed to have occurred. I can't find on the web any account of who first wrote about Galgano’s supposed miracle, or when. It is possible that Galgano’s story influence de Boron, if only in reminding him or an older Sword in the Stone story that may or may not have already been connected with Arthur. The Sword in the Stone is clearly identified with Excalibur in the Vulgate Merlin, and clearly disginguished from it in the Post-Vulgate Merlin. Malory’s /Le Morte D’Arthur/ has both versions. See Book 1, chapter 9 for the identification between Excalibur and the Sword from the Stone.
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