Ciao Excaliboro - King Arthur Half-Italian?

[MrBishop]

Sword legend 'came from Italy'


The sword was until recently thought to be fake [photo: Enigma Galgano]
The story of the "sword in the stone" from the legend of King Arthur, originates in Italy not the Celtic fringes of Britain or France, a new book by an Italian scholar argues.
In The Enigma of San Galgano, Mario Moiraghi cites scientific tests which date a sword embedded in a rock in an abbey in Tuscany to the year 1180, decades before the first literary reference to the sword.

Source

 

[A.B.Normal]

You mean there is no "Lady of the Lake" {puts away muff diving mask and snorkel}

 

[ris]

going to upset a lot of tourism in cornwall and wales if this gets taken serously.

 

[outside looking in]

I've read in various books in journals througout the years that the King Authur story drew components from many cultures across Europe... notably from France (don't throw any tomatoes Brits, I didn't come up with that idea).

I thought that was pretty much accepted wisdom... though I don't recall reading about any particular Italian influences on the story.

 

[ris]

interestingly the guy who wrote this published a book a few years ago linking the story to persia. bbc more