Fiction Excerpt 2: The Sword in the Stone (Part Two)

Arthur was alone at the churchyard, for everyone else was at the jousting tournament. He grasped the sword by the hilt and gave it a light, quick pull. Out it came. Arthur jumped onto his horse, rode to the jousting field, and gave Kay the sword. Now, being a knight, Kay had been told the meaning of the sword in the stone. He recognized at once what it might mean, to see Arthur grasping the sword before him. Unwisely, he tried to deceive his father, saying: “Sir, look, here is the sword of the stone, so I must be king of this land.” Sir Ector was amazed. He took Kay and Arthur back to the churchyard and asked Kay to swear how he came by the sword. Frightened, Kay now admitted: “Sir, my brother Arthur brought it to me.” Then Kay and his father looked at young Arthur. Sir Ector remembered how Merlin had brought Arthur to him in secret many years earlier. Merlin had told him he was to bring the boy up as his own son; in time, he would learn who the child truly was. “How did you get the sword?” Sir Ector asked Arthur. Arthur told him exactly what he had done. “Now,” said Sir Ector to Arthur, “you must be king of this land.” “I?” said Arthur, astonished. “How can that be?” “No man could have pulled out this sword unless he was the rightful king of this land,” said Sir Ector. “Now let me see whether you can put the sword back as it was, and pull it out again.” “That is quite easy,” said Arthur. There, in the frosty churchyard, stood the white stone with the anvil, but with no sword in the anvil. Arthur thrust the sword back into the anvil, which held the blade snugly. To see that there was no trick, Sir Ector tried to pull it out. He could not move it at all. “Now you try,” he said to Sir Kay, who pulled with all his might but could not move it. “Now you,” Sir Ector said to Arthur. “Very well,” said Arthur, and he pulled it out easily. Sir Ector and Sir Kay knelt down before Arthur. “My own dear father and brother,” cried the boy nervously. “Why do you kneel down before me?”

TEACHER RESOURCES 217 Then Sir Ector told Arthur that he was not really his son, and that Merlin had brought him as a baby to be raised in his household. “Sir,” said Sir Ector, “I will ask no more of you but that you make my son, your foster-brother Sir Kay, steward in charge of your lands.” “That shall be done,” answered Arthur, “and no other man shall have the office while he and I live.” The three men went to the archbishop to tell what had happened. Arthur took the sword in both hands and laid it on the altar where the archbishop was standing. Then he knelt down, and the grandest knight present stepped forward to make Arthur a knight. The archbishop set the crown of Britain on Arthur’s head, and Arthur swore to treat all, high and low, with justice all the days of his life. The people threw up their caps and shouted, “Hurrah!” At last, a true king had come to punish the wicked and defend the poor.

218 MEDIEVAL EUROPE