Was King Arthur Part Italian?

 

Most of us will be familiar with the legend of King Arthur and the sword in the stone. According to the story, the hilt of a sword named Excalibur protruded from a large stone, and only the true King of England would be able to pull the sword from the stone.  Arthur, it turned out was the man, and he proceeded to extract the sword, as easily as if he were drawing it from a scabbard. It is said that he went on to defend England against Saxon invaders in the 5th and 6th centuries CE. Whether the man ever actually existed is much debated, and the legend that comes down to us today dates from the 12th century CE, the best known source being Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain).

 

A Later Depiction of Arthur and Excalibur

 

As you can imagine, swords encased in stone do not crop up very often in history, and so when one hears about another one, eyebrows are raised. However, in this second example, not only do we have biographical information about the man behind the story, but the sword in the stone is still in existence.

 

San Galgano was born in Chiusdino, in the modern day Italian province of Siena, in 1148. Being of noble descent, he trained as a knight, but far from being chivalrous, was regarded by contemporaries as violent and arrogant. His personality took a turn for the better, however, following a vision of the Archangel Michael, who supposedly revealed to San Galgano the route to salvation. Thereafter, he announced that he was to become a hermit, and further, that he would be taking up residence in a nearby cave. But before doing so, he decided to pay one last visit to his fiancee, although he never actually made it that far. On his way there, his horse reared up and he was thrown off it. He needn’t have worried, however, as an invisible force lifted him to his feet, and a heavenly voice directed him to a hill called Montesiepi, where he supposedly saw a vision of a round temple with Mary, Jesus and the Twelve Apostles.

 

The voice instructed him to climb the hill, and upon reaching the top it spoke again, demanding that he renounce all his worldly desires. San Galgano, by now having quite a bad day, objected to this, saying that it would be equally easy to split a stone with a sword. To make his point, he drew his sword and thrust it at a large stone. To his astonishment, the sword passed straight into the stone, and has been firmly stuck there ever since. San Galgano immediately got the message, and thereafter lived as a hermit on Montesiepi. After his death, a round chapel was built on top of the hill, incorporating the sword in the stone.

 

An Enigmatic Artefact if Ever There Was One!

 

A nice story, but complete hogwash, I’m sure you’ll agree. Well, hogwash almost certainly, but it’s just that there are a couple of things that might cause you to have second thoughts. Firstly, it had been generally assumed that the sword in the stone was a comparatively modern, if clever, fabrication. However, based on the composition of the metal, and the style of the sword, research has determined that the sword does in fact date from the 12th century CE. Secondly, the chapel also contains a more gruesome relic; a pair of mummified hands. According to legend, the devil wanted San Galgano dead, and so sent someone to assassinate him. Apparently, this would be hit man was attacked by a pack of wolves while en route, and killed. It is supposedly the hands of this unfortunate individual, that reside in the chapel. Alternatively, another legend for the macabre hands, maintains that anyone who tries to remove the sword will have their hands ripped out. In this version, we are, therefore, presumably presented with the remnants of an unsuccessful attempt at sword retrieval. In either case, the mummified remains have been radio carbon dated to, yes you’ve guessed it, the 12th century CE!

 

A Rather Gruesome Exhibit

 

Ground-penetrating radar has also revealed a 2 metre by 1 metre cavity beneath the sword bearing stone. Could this be the resting place of San Galgano himself? It would seem logical, but to date, no excavation has taken place.

 

Clearly, whilst any sensible person will take this story with a very large pinch of salt, it does seem as though curious things were happening at Montesiepi around 800 years ago. But how do we get from a Mediterranean nobleman, born in 1148, to a legendary King of England, reputed to have lived over half a millennia earlier?

 

To put it simply, what is the correlation between 12th century Italy and 5th century England? Well, it is probably no coincidence that Geoffrey of Monmouth was writing his Historia Regum Britanniae, around the time that the events described above were supposedly occurring. Might Geoffrey have learned of the San Galgano story, and simply decided to embellish the Arthurian legend with an anglicised version of the old sword in the stone routine?

 

It is possible, that a King who went by the name of Arthur, did indeed walk upon England’s pastures green, but I am fairly certain that, if he existed at all, he never extracted a sword from a solid piece of rock. And yet, in Montesiepi, there is a solid piece of rock with a sword firmly encased in it. It’s a funny old world!

 

Sources:

http://www.ancient-origins.net/artifacts-other-artifacts/legendary-sword-stone-san-galgano-002968

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/sep/16/rorycarroll.theobserver