[J. Padgett]

Wow someone did try to remove the sword, and broke it? That's probably why it is now under a locked dome.

[Helen Miller]

Yeah apparently so. I just wish there was more information on the St. Galgano sword.
My curiosity is killing me! I wonder if the book mentioned in the e-mail has any info.
Any one read the book???

[Mikko Kuusirati]

[Helen Miller]

See article below

[Helen Miller]

Well Damiano Andreini could be correct, I found this:

From Archaeology Magazine
A News Brief by Roberto Bartoloni
Volume 55 Number 1, January/February 2002

"For centuries skeptics have questioned the legend of the "Italian Excalibur," a sword allegedly plunged into a stone by Galgano Guidotti, a twelfth-century knight who gave up warmongering to become a hermit and, after his death, was made a saint. A University of Pavia team recently decided to investigate the legend, and confirmed that the style and composition of the sword, still displayed in its rock in a small chapel in Tuscany, is consistent with Guidotti's time. A ground-penetrating radar survey of the chapel revealed an underground cavity near the stone that may be Guidotti's tomb, while two mummified hands displayed in the chapel, allegedly from someone who attempted to remove the sword, have been carbon-dated to the twelfth century. Further research into Guidotti's sword is expected, but readers should be informed that the sword was easily removable from the stone until 1924, when the crevice was filled with lead."

[Jean Thibodeau]

Ah, very interesting even if it sort of negates the idea of a sword unremovable from the stone due to some " Magic ".

So no great mystery if a hole was made in a stone and the sword slipped into it: The whole thing of it being a miracle is sort of not supported by facts.

But more research about this sword should be interesting.

Well pouring lead into the hole in 1924 seems to me today as a stupid thing to do if it makes getting the sword out difficult without doing damage to the sword.

[Mikko Kuusirati]

At the moment my pet theory is that there was a narrow hole in the rock, probably filled with loose earth, and signore Guidotti just happened to hit that insted of solid stone when he sought to demonstrate his argument to the Lord. Whether the sword actually clove through stone is relatively immaterial next to the realization that driving it into bedrock was NOT, in fact, impossible; and hitting such a narrow window by chance is in itself a miracle as big as any; so whether the good knight actually noticed what happened, or thought he'd thrust his sword into the rock itself, either way it was clearly brought about by divine interference and the power of God, and the implications plain enough.

[Jean Thibodeau]

Mikko;

Interesting theory, and I was not aware of the details of the story, history or legend.

But improbable things happen all the time, just a personal example:

Years ago I was playing with cards were you compete at trowing them as close to a wall as possible and one card hit the wall 5 feet off the floor and " Miraculously " didn't fall to the ground

The little kid and I who were playing ( I was babysitting. ) went up to the wall and found that the card had wedged itself in a tiny crack ( And I mean hairline crack ) in an otherwise smooth wall.

The odds of that happening I don't even want to imagine: I could probably have tried repeating this for the last 30 years 18 hours a day nonstop with a predictable success rate of ZERO. ( Probably could spend a couple of million years trying to duplicate this. )

Now that something like this happened exactly when Sir Guidotti was making an important point is doubly spooky and also the fact that this event probably changed the direction of the rest of his life.