It seems an old sword has vanished. It's deemed by locals (particularly those in the tourist trade) to be the original, real, cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die, pinky-swear Durandal belonging to the mythically-enhanced, legendary Roland, one of Charlemagne's military governors during the 8th century AD. The Telegraph reports:
It is southern France’s answer to Excalibur, the mythical sword that King Arthur legendarily pulled from a rock to obtain the British throne.
However, Rocamadour has no idea who managed to wrench its famed Durandal sword from the stone in which it had been embedded for centuries, particularly because it was 10 metres (32.5 feet) off the ground.
All the town knows is that one of its main tourist attractions has vanished. It is presumed stolen and an investigation has been launched.
Durandal was the sword of Roland, a legendary paladin (knight) and officer of Charlemagne in French epic literature. According to the legend, Durandal was indestructible and the sharpest sword in all existence, capable of cutting through giant boulders with a single strike.
Its magical qualities are recounted in the 11th-century epic poem The Song of Roland, the oldest surviving major work of French literature.
. . .
Medieval “myth” has it that before it was given to Roland, Charlemagne received Durandal from an angel. Before his death at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass, Roland is said to have tried in vain to break it on the rocks to prevent his enemies from seizing it. He finally threw it into the air to save it. Miraculously travelling hundreds of kilometres, it is said to have embedded itself in the rock face of Rocamadour.
There's more at the link.
I can't help laughing at the fuss and bother. It's patently obvious to anybody with two working brain cells to rub together that Rocamadour installed a fake Durandal to attract medieval tourists, who were rather more credulous than their modern equivalents. It's the same sort of fake as the "pieces cut from the sail of Saint Peter's fishing-boat!" that pedlars sold to pilgrims, or the fabled "Holy House of Loreto", the purported original home of the Virgin Mary. It supposedly flew (powered by angels) from Nazareth in the Holy Land, via two other locations, until it landed in Loreto, Italy (which proceeded to make a fortune from pilgrims thronging there to see it).
(Perhaps Boeing might like to hire the angels concerned? They need all the help they can get right now!)
So, a long-standing fake has been stolen. So what??? Just whip up a convincing copy of it, put it back in place, and Bob's your uncle. It's not as if the stolen fake has any value, intrinsic or otherwise. "Flew from Roncevaux to Rocamadour", my fundamental jujube!
(On the other hand, if President Biden turns up wielding the stolen Durandal copy during his next debate with former President Trump, all sorts of things might get more interesting! It might help his cutting remarks . . . )
Peter
10 comments:
You're right about the probable provenance of the sword, but this incident sounds like the sort of thing Tim Powers could make a crackling good story out of, especially if they never find the thing.
But then it would be a modern fake fake, not the authentic medieval fake.
Heretic!
It was 30feet in the air, thats not a run of the mil theft. So that suggests someone wanted it because it was a medieval sword not a couple of meth heads looking for scrap metal to pawn
option B is town removed it to fix it up as the impervious sword started to rust and can't have that. If it miraculously reappears all shiny then you know it was a marketting scam
Exile1981
Calls to mind The Sword Worlds Of Piper.
I had a friend named Roland, and until I told him, he had no idea about his mythical namesake. His last name was also of a famous knight, which he did know of, at least.
Maybe some Christian soldier was guided by God to retrieve the sword and drive the paynim from the blessed lands of Charles Martel.
Or, most likely, some paynim trying to de-Christianize France.
Well, the flying house myth definitely seems incredible. But remember that in Samaria Jesus talk with a woman at the well that was given to Jacob Over 1000 years before. How did they know it was the same well? Oral tradition. But do we doubt that it was the same well?
Just saying, traditions like this are not always false.
Easier said than done. A proper legendary sword is forged from meteoric iron, like the Hidden Sword of Pratchett.
Hmmm ... King Arthur drawing the sword from the stone?
Trying to make sense of the legends and tales of "King" Arthur (his legends and stories have been reinterpreted throughout the millennia to suit their particular era) the origin of the legend of The Sword in the Stone is almost certainly based in truth, but not quite what Sir Thomas Mallory (La Morte D'Arthur) or T. H. White (The Once and Future King) envisaged.
The Celts worked bronze and cast bronze swords (see the wikipedia entry here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_Age_sword) or the many illustrations here: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=celtic+bronze+swords&t=opera&iax=images&ia=images.
So how did they cast them and more importantly, what material did they make the moulds from? The amswer is that they carved two flat stones with the pattern of the sword, tied them together and then poured the molten bronze into the mould. Hence, Arthur was a metalworker who could draw the most important celtic weapon from stone.
There have been many such moulds found throughout the regions where the Celts lived, especially Ireland.
Phil B
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