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Right you are and for a reward

you get a rendition of a portion

of the final battle...courtesy of

Robert of Thornton

 

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... That perceives our prince and presses to fast,

Strikes into the stour by strenghe of his handes,

Meetes with Sir Mordred; he meles unfair:

"Turn, traitour untrew, thee tides no better;

By grete God, thou shall die with dint of my handes!

Thee shall rescue no renk ne riches in erthe!"

 

The king with Caliburn knightly him strikes;

The cantel of his clere sheld he carves in sonder,

Into the shoulder of the shalk a shaftmonde large

That the shire red blood shewed on the mailes!

He shuddered and shrinkes and shuntes but little,

But shockes in sharply in his sheen weedes;

The felon with the fine sword freshly he strikes,

The felettes of the ferrer side he flashes in sonder,

Through jupon and gesseraunt of gentle mailes,

The freke fiched in the flesh an half-foot large;

That derf dint was his dede, and dole was the more

That ever that doughty sholde die but at Drightens will!

 

Yet with Caliburn his sword full knightly he strikes,

Castes in his clere sheld and coveres him full fair,

Swappes off the sword hand, als he by glentes -

An inch fro the elbow he oched it in sonder

That he swoones on the swarth and on swim falles -

Through bracer of brown steel and the bright mailes,

That the hilt and the hand upon the hethe ligges.

 

Then freshlich the freke the fente up-reres,

Broches him in with the brand to the bright hiltes,

And he brawles on the brand and bounes for to die.

"In faye," said the fey king, "sore me for-thinkes

That ever such a false thef so fair an end haves."

 

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But wait!, there's more! (tv ad words I hate)

 

Excalibur is the mythical sword of King Arthur. In some accounts it is the same as the sword that Arthur alone was able to draw from the stone, thus denoting his kingship. In other cases, it is a different sword, given him by the Lady of the Lake. On his death, it was eventually returned to the Lady of the Lake by Sir Bedivere.

 

In Welsh legend, Arthur's sword is known as "Caliburn", which is thought by some to be a corruption of the name "Caledvwlch", a magic sword in the Mabinogion. Geoffrey of Monmouth also calls Arthur's sword "Caliburn" in his "History of the Kings of Britain", and it is thought that the name Excalibur is a corruption of this usage. Sir Thomas Malory says that Caliburn was the original name; when Caliburn was broken, it was re-forged into the sword and the new name Excalibur was bestowed upon it. However, the name is also close to the Latin phrase for 'out of the stone'.

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