Ah swords! No other weapon throughout history has able to capture the hearts of mankind in such a unique way. It has been seen as the weapon of choice for heroes and royalty throughout the ages, for its versatility, ease of use and because you can kill people with it (mostly the third thing).
Swords are so iconic that they are often attributed with divine right and power in myths and legends as well. So here are the 5 most famous and powerful swords from myths all across the world.
Excalibur (Arthurian Mythology)
Excalibur is probably the most famous mythical sword out there. With its story still being used in fantasy media when they need a magical weapon with brand recognition. The story of Excalibur goes: The blade was placed in a stone by the wizard ‘Merlin’ with the claim that whoever pulls out the sword from the stone would be the new king of England.
Forget democracy; let’s go back to mystical bullshit like this. Can’t be any worse.
The sword is then drawn by a boy named Arthur who then becomes King Arthur, the greatest knight in all of history, famous for his round table and spicy love triangles.
Only this might not have been the case. In some iterations of the story, the sword in the stone is actually called ‘Clarent’ which breaks in battle. Arthur is then given a new more powerful blade the Excalibur by the lady of the lake, which had magical abilities that aided Arthur in battle.
I mean obviously, if some ancient mystical water deity handed me a sword, I’d expect it to do a bit more than cut things. But even more impressive is the swords scabbard, which when wielded ensured Arthur could not lose even a drop of blood in battle.
Gram (Norse Mythology)
Gram is basically the Excalibur of Norse mythology. As the story goes an old man sticks Gram into the trunk of the ancient tree ‘Barnstokkar’ and says anyone who can pull the sword out can keep it (much like the sword in the stone myth).But like in many cases in mythology the old man is actually a god in disguise, in this case Odin the all-father. After many tired and failed it is finally freed from the tree by Sigmund who uses the sword as his primary weapon in his adventures.
This event was immortalized in stone…not well I might add
But perhaps Gram’s greatest feat is in the hands of Sigurd who inherited the sword from his father and uses it to slay the dragon Fafnir.
The name Gram is derived from the Old Norse word for ‘wrath’, which as blade names go is pretty cool.
Caladbolg (Irish Mythology)
The Iconic sword of Fergus mac Roich, the king of Ulster and is used in the Ulster Cycle, one of the four great cycles of Irish mythology.
Its name directly translates to ‘hard blade’ or ‘hard cleft’ depending on how it’s spelled and it’s hardness in not even the greatest of its powers.
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