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Bow to the new queen of England… 

‘Twas not a fortnight ago, when a tale of merriment and awe began that bequeathed one with innocence and valor to remove the famed “Excalibur” sword from the icy grips of a watery grave. Once upon a time (last week) in fair Cornwall, England, a young girl waded the fabled waters of Dozmary Pool. ‘Twas here legend has it, a dying King Arthur left his famed sword, Excalibur.

With pure heart and pink shoes a fair maiden, seven-year-old “Matilda Jones” of Doncaster glimpsed a treasure gleaming with majestic power and enchantment in the water’s depths. Could it be? The lass spotting the artifact, gracefully called to her father who replied with disbelief. Her father (Paul Jones) replied: “I told her not to be silly and it was probably a bit of fencing,” “But when I looked down I realized it was a sword. It was just there laying flat on the bottom of the lake.”

Could it be? The two bravely retrieved the enchanted blade… It measured four feet in length — precisely Matilda’s height, her father realized. King Arthur first received Excalibur at Dozmary Pool, from the mysterious “Lady of the Lake”, as the (newspaper) Mirror recalled. His loyal knight, Sir Bedivere, cast it into the water after the king’s mortal wounding at war, and legend has it, a hand emerges from the lake to catch it… Some even believed Excalibur’s owner to be the rightful monarch of England, the Kansas City Star reported.

The Sword in the Stone” is a fabled story of old, of a weapon in the Arthurian legend which only the rightful king of Britain can pull from the stone; sometimes associated with Excalibur. In Arthurian romance, a number of explanations are given for Arthur’s possession of Excalibur. In Robert de Boron’s Merlin, the first tale to mention the “sword in the stone” motif, Arthur obtained the British throne by pulling a sword from an anvil sitting atop a stone that appeared in a churchyard on Christmas Eve. In this account, the act could not be performed except by “the true king” (or in Matilda’s case, the true Queen), meaning the divinely appointed king or true heir. This sword is thought by many to be the famous Excalibur, and its identity is made explicit in the later Prose Merlin (best known as the wizard featured in Arthurian legend), part of the Lancelot-Grail cycle.

We digress… Back to Matilda: Did the “Lady of the Lake” give Excalibur to Matilda? Did the wizard “Merlin” cast a spell so it would be found again? Hath England a new queen? And most importantly, should all in the land kneel before “Queen Matilda Jones”? Alas, Matilda’s Father ruler seemed loathe to bend his knee… I don’t think it’s particularly old,” the father told the Mirror. “It’s probably an old film prop.” he said. – We say: “Hail to the queen” and “Long live Queen Matilda Jones”! – Cast thine eyes on an image of our true hero and blade below:

Excalibur
*Note to fathers everywhere: Sometimes when an opportunity presents itself, you just have to save the day and run with it… 
Credit: USA TODAY

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