Week 12 Story: The Sword AND the Stone

Author's Note: When it comes to King Arthur mythology, I've always found the idea of someone just picking up the sword with the stone still attached endlessly hilarious. This is my take on that.

Sidenote: one of my favorite video games, Bloodborne, has a weapon that is pretty much exactly this (pictured below)

--------------------

The kingdom was at war. War was good for business. Business was bad for Arthur, the young apprentice to one of the capitol's many blacksmiths. The king had died a year ago, and he had left no heir, only a sword in a stone and a promise that whoever could lift it would take his place. No one could lift it, it turned out, and so the world seemed like it was about to implode. The Regent set to rule until the new king was found had the respect of exactly nobody, and every lord and their mom had gotten to the point that they were ready to ride into the castle and just take the throne by force.

All this violence and unrest, of course, meant people were clamoring for arms and armor which in turn meant Arthur was working practically around the clock. He was a good worker--big, strong, and never got tired--but even he could only keep this up for so long. "I hope they find a king soon," was the thought that echoed in his head as he hammered away at the white hot steel preform on the anvil, late that night when just about everyone else (including the master blacksmith) was asleep. Little did he know just how fateful that night would be.

As the clock struck one, Arthur heard yelling and the clattering of rapidly approaching hooves. Not long after their source rounded the corner. Squires from the castle were riding up and down the street yelling about some sort of attack. Before Arthur could piece together what was going on, one horse came to a screeching halt in front of him, skidding across the cobblestones and rearing up on its hind legs as it did so. 

"Good sir is this your shop?" the squire asked, clearly out of breath as though it had been he, and not the horse, running up and down the street.

"I am just the apprentice here, what of it?" Arthur replied.

"We've just gotten word from our scouts that the southern kingdom is marching on the capitol! They will likely be here in less than an hour. Here," the squire said, producing a piece of paper, "I have a writ from the regent himself. We don't have enough knights to defend the city, so all smithies are to hand out whatever weapons they have to the townsfolk. You will be compensated after the battle--assuming we survive the battle"

The squire rode off before Arthur could ask any of the hundreds of questions swirling around in his brain. Not long after a stream of townsfolk started pouring in, and in less than half an hour he had handed out every weapon they had, even the unfinished swords and the smith sledgehammers. He hoped it would help, but somehow he doubted that.

Arthur's doubts came to a head pretty rapidly as he watched hordes of the navy blue-clad knights of the southern kingdom storming through the city gates and up the main street towards him. It was at this moment he realized he had not thought to save a weapon for himself. "Huh, that's unfortunate," was all he had time to mutter to himself before taking off full-sprint away from the invaders. 

It wasn't long before he was out of breath and moving along at what could generously be considered a light jog. His size served him well when it came to beating pieces of metal into shape, but not so much when it came to cardio. Arthur wasn't one to give up though, so as long as he heard the clanking of plate armor behind him, he would keep moving...or so he thought. Just as that clanking was getting as close as it had ever been, Arthur found himself before the castle gates, and at a dead end.

Arthur reluctantly turned and looked behind himself. A sea of cold steel and navy blue standards was pouring into the plaza, about to engulf him and pull him under like a breaking wave. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. Weapon, weapon, weapon, a tree branch, a rock, anything, but there was nothing. Nothing except that stupid sword and that stupid goddamned stone. Only knights were allowed to give it a try, and Arthur was fairly certain he couldn't draw it anyway, but it was his only shot, so try he did.

The sword didn't budge. The stone, on the other hand, rose, slowly but surely, until it hung in the air above Arthurs head. Much less slowly, it came crashing down on the head of the hapless knight who happened to be closest to Arthur. The stone broke into a million pieces as it hit the ground, the reverberations from the impact forcing every man in the immediate vicinity to take a moment to steady themselves. 

Arthur, now, found himself holding the newly freed sword of the late king. He, and everyone in the plaza stood dumbstruck. Eyes darted back and forth wondering what to do, including his own.

At last, one of the knights spoke up: "Well, I mean technically..."

Kirkhammer GIF. Source: gfycat

--------------------

Story Source: King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table by Andrew Lang

Comments

  1. Hey Lewis!
    Loved your story! Especially then end what a twist! But hey, he technically did get the sword out of the stone so I guess its his now! I really liked the knights reaction at the end too, it was like the icing on the cake. Overall, really nice writing! I'd say most people are familiar with the original story so your version was a nice change! I hope I stumble upon your page again sometime!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts