“But There Might None Prevail”: The Sword in the Stone and its Narrative Forebears

Abstract

The sword in the stone is nowadays a fundamental part of the tale of King Arthur, and as a narreme it has enjoyed tremendous popularity in retellings of the Arthurian matter, both on page and on screen. This fortunate 13th-century addition to the matter of the Once and Future King has sparked scholarly curiosity, and drastically differing hypotheses have been formulated as to its origin, even very recently. This thesis will compare and contrast Francesco Marzella’s 2022 study, which suggests a Scandinavian origin for the sword trial narreme, and Alexandre Micha’s earlier theory connecting it to French chivalric literature and heroic narratives of Ancient Rome. The Arthurian sword trial, along with the analogues proposed by both authors, will then be analysed in an effort to establish the importance of the trial’s setting as a liminal space facilitating contact with the dead, the supernatural, or the hero’s passage into their destiny. This will allow a revision of the sword trial definition, and the exclusion of the least likely analogues. Finally, a third chapter will be dedicated to the analysis of Beowulf’s giant-sword episode. The definitions and criteria brought to light in the previous chapters will be used to establish whether the Anglo-Saxon poem may be argued to contain a sword trial, possibly testifying to the circulation of this narreme in Britain well before it entered the Arthurian canon.