France's 'Excalibur' sword vanishes from the stone after 1,300 years

Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world to Not The Onion@lemmy.world – 334 points – France's 'Excalibur' sword vanishes from the stone after 1,300 years
local12.com

According to The New York Post, citing a report by The Telegraph, n sword that is regarded as France's "Excalibur" has vanished from its stone. Per the publication, locals in the French town of Rocamadour believed the sword, Durandal, had been lodged in rock for around 1,300 years. A main attraction for the town, the sword could be found stuck in a sheer rock wall about 100 feet off the ground

Authorities in France are working to determine how the sword was taken from the 100 foot sheer rock face.

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They didn't include a picture of Durandal in the whole article.

I never knew that was a cliff face? Unless this isn't the real one.

Saw this article posted somewhere yesterday, and someone there commented that the sword on display is a reproduction. The original sword is in a museum or something.

So who's the new king of France?

Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.

Looks at the United States government as a citizen

I'll take my chances.

"Trump is trying to become a king! This shit is fucked! I wish we were cool like those countries with kings!"

  • your brain on liberalism

I mean, if I went around saying I was an emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they’d put me away!

I order you to shut up, peasant!

Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! — HELP! HELP! I’m being repressed!

To be fair, it would be quite hard to do worse than the entrenched 2-party FPTP + gerrymandered electoral college bullshit system we have now.

Nah, it's an automatic emergency response to the recent election.

I appears he had a disagreement with the locals and some people lost their heads

Anything is better than this right wing shit show they just elected?

Elections are this sunday. Nobody's been elected yet.

I admit, I'm not well informed here. I'm just seeing everywhere about the far right and LePenn's big win and headlines that talk about it as if it is a done deal.

The house of Orléans still exist, they’re just not allowed to rule lol

Uhg.

It’s not Excalibur. It’s durendal

It was carried by Roland, a paladin of Charlegmane’s court. The sword that was at Rocamdor was a replica (or a fake.

As an incorrigible nerd, I take offense at confusing magic swords like this….

Also. It’s not the only sword in stone. There’s the sword of St. Galgano Italy

Maybe that's why they used "quotes" around "Excalibur" and mentioned its real name in the article.

Most tone-deaf "Umm actually.." I've ever seen lmao

Edit: "Excalibur" is obviously a metaphor for "sword in stone"

Maybe the most deliberate "D'oh"

I’m being a bit tongue in cheek, though for the record it’s unlikely that Arthur or Excalibur actually existed. Where it’s known that Roland and Durendal did. (Albeit, without all the fantastic and magical attributes ascribed in the Matter of France).

I’m just a huge nerd and get annoyed when people mix up their magical swords.

That's why I called you tone-deaf, not even the article "mixed up" their magical swords. It's saying "France's 'Excalibur'" referring to a sword-in-stone myth located in France, using its proper name a few lines in.

Using metaphors like that in titles is just a way to capture the readers attention. It's the fastest and most succinct way to discribe the news and have everyone understand the point of the article. It's not wrong, it's a metaphor.

get annoyed when people mix up their magical swords

I get annoyed by people reading only the headline and feeling like they have something useful to contribute.

I get annoyed by people reading only the headline and feeling like they have something useful to contribute.

how about people who do nothing except complain?

That's exactly why they did, although I'd argue something like Durendal (France's "Excalibur") would probably be better.

There’s got to be a better headline - the sword’s name and legend looks just as compelling as Excalibur even if not as well known (outside France)

The point is that Excalibur is well known and Durendal isnt. They want eyes, and so make the article headline reference something everyone knows, then educate in the article body.

Durandal is well known by people whose opinions on swords in stones matter

That probably wasn't the target audience of the article. It was probably people who were more likely to know Excalibur than Durendal.

Counterpoint: The opinions of people that know about Durandal don't matter to the people whose opinions matter about article headlines.

Charlemagne

from Latin magnus -> "Charles the Great"

I believe he was referring to the dude who's appendage was burnt to a crisp. You know, char leg man

They should come forward to claim their throne. They are the rightful king of France now.

I wouldn't necessarily want to claim the throne in a country that once invented a machine for getting rid of kings by getting rid of their heads very efficiently.

to be fair they are moving towards fascism so this is the best time to do it

It was invented to kill in a "more humane manner", not to get rid of kings. That's just a nice side bonus.

Indeed, but it only was widely popularised after it had been used to rid France of its king by ridding said King of his head.

The Stone of Tear will never fall, till Callandor is wielded by the Dragon’s hand. The Stone of Tear will never fall, till the People of the Dragon come.

Into the heart he thrusts his sword, into the heart, to hold their hearts. who draws it out shall follow after, What hand can grasp that fearful blade?

And it was written that no hand but his should wield the Sword held in the Stone, but he did draw it out, like fire in his hand, and his glory did burn the world. Thus did it begin. Thus do we sing his Rebirth. Thus do we sing the beginning.

It just occurred to me that I don't think we ever figured out what the song the tinkers were looking for was.

I always thought it hinted that it was the Song of Growing that the Da'shain Aiel used to sing with the Ogier and the Nym during the AOL.

Yeah, though they had mythologized it so much, they probably would have continued searching!

Now what the hell? How was the sword put into the rock 100 feet up 1300 years ago?

I mean humans didn’t just spontaneously develop the ability to climb mountains 500 years ago or something.

Okay let’s start with a sword stuck into the stone. Did that ability spontaneously disappear 500 years ago?

No, it disappeared with the rise of technology. We could still stick swords into stone as late as 1850. But after that the mass production systems meant wizards just weren't in demand anymore and the portals to their plane were closed.

That sucks bro. We basically just put all the wizards out of work

These days it’s all “Glock in a rock”

The march of technology is really bringing down the level of charm, if you ask me.

Also, that’s my next public art exhibition, so nobody steal that idea while I work on becoming a famous avant-garde artist.