myArmoury.com - St. Galgano article

Posts: 2,608

Tue 16 Sep, 2003 8:33 pm

St. Galgano article

I just finished reading the article about the Sword of St. Galgano. I have to say what is the rest of the story? :) There's a cavity in the rock? Where's the opening? Is there the rest of a sword blade in there? Any plausible and sort of unmiraculous explanations that anyone can think of? I want more information! :)

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Björn Hellqvist

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Posts: 723 Location: Sweden

Wed 17 Sep, 2003 4:23 pm

Re: St. Galgano article

Russ Ellis wrote:

I just finished reading the article about the Sword of St. Galgano. I have to say what is the rest of the story? :) There's a cavity in the rock? Where's the opening? Is there the rest of a sword blade in there? Any plausible and sort of unmiraculous explanations that anyone can think of? I want more information! :)

Well, my sources didn't tell much about those aspects of the story, but I've gathered the following:

- The cavity appears to be some sort of tomb. Excavating it would mean disturbing a holy site, which might not sit well with the Catholic church. If there's an opening, it might be covered up.

- The sword blade goes down in the rock, and it appears like there are no loose rocks, cracks, seams, etc, that could explain why the sword looks like it has penetrated deep. There's no mention of the sword having been removed even once.

- My guess is that the monks who built the chapel "improved" a bit on the sword-stuck-in-the-ground part of the story. The Cisterciensans were interested in inventions and technology, and it isn't impossible that they figured out a way to make the sword appear to be firmly embedded in the rock. Perhaps taking a big slab, cracking it, chiselling out a channel for the blade, and putting it back to gether. With a bit of work, any signs of a hairline crack could be erased.

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Russ Ellis

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Posts: 2,608

Wed 17 Sep, 2003 7:45 pm

Thanks Bjorn, no chance of you trotting down there for a Holiday to check things out is there? :)

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Nathan Robinson

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Posts: 11,553 Location: San Francisco

Thu 18 Sep, 2003 10:59 am

I have to admit, that this entire bit of history was completely new to me. I had never read about it.

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Russ Ellis

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Posts: 2,608

Thu 18 Sep, 2003 8:20 pm

Yes there was a thread at SFI a little while ago where one of our Italian buddies was postulating that the whole King Arthur legend came from this story. Seems like kind of a far stretch to me since King Arthur legends predate the 12th century by rather a lot.

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Roger Hooper

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Posts: 4,393 Location: Northern California

Fri 19 Sep, 2003 10:16 am

Russ Ellis wrote:

Yes there was a thread at SFI a little while ago where one of our Italian buddies was postulating that the whole King Arthur legend came from this story. Seems like kind of a far stretch to me since King Arthur legends predate the 12th century by rather a lot.

Sure there were Celtic Arthurian legends before the 12th century, but there was a big stirring of the pot by Chretien de Troyes in the tweltfh century. I'm not sure when the sword in the stone legend attached itself to the mix - maybe at this time.

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