In the mid fith century AD Britain was a dangerous and unstable place as it had no ruling king and relied on an indecisive council to make decisions.

 

Arthur's adoptive brother Sir Kay had recently been knighted and his

family had travelled to Camelot to see him off. Arthur, now

aged sixteen, had always looked up to his older brother even

though Sir Kay had treated him much like a servant. At the

castle Sir Kay found that he had forgotten his sword at home,

he would be disgraced without a sword. Sir Kay ordered

Arthur to run home swiftly and retrieve his sword. On his

way out of the castle Arthur encountered a large crowd,

pushing past the crowd and towards the gate was nearly

impossible. Arthur squeezed through the men surrounding

the square, he was desperately trying to find a sword for Sir

Kay.

 

Arthur spotted a sword stuck in a boulder in the centre of the square, he decided that running home would take far too long and decided to take the sword in the boulder to his brother instead. Arthur pushed through the crowd and put his hand around the hilt of the sword, Arthur barely noticed that on the sword an inscription read “Who

pulleth out this sword of this stone is the rightwise born king of all England”, on the opposite side of the blade was the name of the sword “Excalibur”. The hilt of the sword was decorated in gold with vines engraved around the pommel and a ruby set in the top, the hilt was just the right shape for Arthur’s hand. Men surrounding the square laughed at Arthur, but in one swift motion Arthur pulled the sword from the boulder, the blade was just long enough for him and shined gold in the sunlight. All around the square the laughing men fell to their knees in silence and began chanting hail king of England.