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Week 13 Story: Arthur? Really?

 

(BOTW by m4mystery)

Arthur? Really?

Arthur looked up from the stone, sword in hand. This was the fourth time he had to pull the sword and to be honest, he was getting rather tired of it. The first time, he had just grabbed the sword because his brother had forgotten his sword at home and he couldn't get into his house. The other two were because the people he told about the sword just couldn't believe him. First, he did it in front of his father and brother, who then went to get the magician Merlin and the Archbishop for whom he once again pulled the sword. They had advised that he pull it once against though, this had all happened in the middle of a festival in which the kingdom's greatest knights had gathered to attempt to pull the sword from the stone and claim the kingdom for their own. 

He looked around at the faces staring at him in disbelief. Arthur was neither a knight or a squire, so seeing him pull the sword with such ease almost seemed like a trick. Eventually, one person knelt and another and another and another, until all but a few recognized him as the true king. The few that remained standing eyed Arthur suspiciously. They called out to Merlin and the Archbishop and argued that the next King should be from the knights. He called to Arthur and told him to put the sword back and let him inspect it. Arthur obliged.

The knight stepped up to the stone and examined it. It looked like how he remembered and there weren't any clear signs of tampering. It certainly looked like a sword that had been embedded in the rock for many years. He tried to pull it and sure enough, he was unable to lift it out of the rock. He had Arthur come back and lift the sword as he watched. The sword slid easily out of the rock. The knight stood back and racked his brain trying to come up with any reason that this random youth who wasn't even a knight could pull the sword. 

Eventually, it dawned on him. Uther Pendragon had left a son. 


Author's Note: In this story, I focus on Arthur pulling the sword from the stone when there were knights other than his brother and father present. In the original, the other knights mostly accepted it and though some didn't, they eventually just went along with it. I wanted to look at those who didn't accept what happened right away and what they might have done to get to the bottom of it. I didn't drastically change the plot, I just tried to highlight a scene within the greater story.

Bibliography: The Drawing of the Sword by Andrew Lang

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Comments

  1. NatalieNovember 29, 2020 at 10:53 PM

    Hi Zeeshawn! I thought your story was really interesting! I have never really read Arthur, just heard about the whole 'sword in the stone' thing,' so it was interesting to learn a little more about what happened in the story. I had no idea that the knights watching this occur did not accept Arthur as the true king! Great job!

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  2. JillienneNovember 29, 2020 at 10:53 PM

    Hi Zeeshawn! This was a fun little look into the story of King Arthur. I like the way that you made it feel like Arthur was annoyed that he had to pull the sword from the stone so many times. I could picture Arthur rolling his eyes and saying, "here we go again," in an exasperated tone. I also like that you chose to focus on the knights who did not believe that a boy could pull the sword from the stone. It would be fun to see this part of the story be told in a comical way.

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