Swordplay had a very significant role in defining the Medieval Chivalric Code of Honor subscribed to in the Middle Ages in Medieval Europe. I assume that this occurred because should people be civil while trying to wound or kill the other, they would be the same in everyday life. Literature idealizes the knight who wielded the sword against evil. The embodiment of the Chivalric ideal was so strong that the sword of the user also took on these noble characteristics, and was given a name by the bards and poets of this time.
The most famous of the named swords was King Arthur’s Excalibur. The story is told of young Arthur who extracted the sword from the stone when others could not do so. Arthur was of noble lineage and imbued with princely qualities, therefore, he was able to attain the great sword and be crowned King. He reigned in the idyllic Camelot, and with the magnificent magical sword was able to defeat all enemies and give his subjects an almost perfect life.
Tennyson, the English poet, described the spectacular weapon as sparkling with diamonds, topaz lights, and jacinth work of sublest jewelry. The replica of Excalibur is one of the most popular of the collectible swords.
Camelot decayed because of the imperfections of men. However, Excalibur lives on somewhere in the universe, and is only waiting for Arthur to return and again claim the regal sword. Alfred Lord Tennyson in “Morte d” Arthur” describes Excalibur’s fate after the death of Arthur. The sword was thrown into the lake by one of Arthur’s knights.
“So flash’d and fell the brand Excalibur
But ere he dipt the surface, rose an arm
Cloth’d in white samite, mystic, wonderful,
And caught him by the hilt, and brandish’d him
