Clarent


KING ARTHUR
ARTHURIAN LEGENDS
Clarent, the Sword in the Stone

Many accounts confuse Clarent with Excalibur, when they are separate swords wielded by King Arthur. Meanwhile, Clarent is described in Arthurian legend —with Arthur pulling out the Sword in the Stone and affirming his rightful place as King of Britain.

Uther Pendragon was the High King of Britain. Merlin, a powerful wizard, was his adviser. He was the one who devised the Sword in the Stone. As the nobles gained power, Merlin knew that Arthur — Uther’s first-born son — would not be spared. As such, the wizard convinced the High King to keep Arthur’s upbringing a secret, until he was strong enough to be the next king. 


Merlin’s advice proved to be wise. After Uther died, the nobles openly fought over the throne, resulting in much destruction. In the darkest hour, Merlin carried out the rest of his plan. He invoked Clarent with magic — which only Arthur could undo — and engraved the sword with the words:
 

Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone is the rightwise born king of all England.

Meanwhile, Arthur had grown in stature befitting a king. As expected, he was the only one who could pull out Clarent. The sword proved his royal heritage — and ended the power struggle. Consequently, Clarent became  a ceremonial sword, and a symbol of King Arthur’s sovereignty.


Mordred the Betrayer

In Historia Regum Britanniae, Arthur — who was going to the battlefield — decided to entrust the throne to Mordred, his illegitimate son. It was a mistake, for Mordred soon betrayed Arthur and declared himself King of Britain. His betrayal culminated into the Battle of Carnlann. Ironically, it was the only time Clarent was used as a weapon — Mordred stole the sword from Arthur and used it to inflict a fatal wound on his father. The rest is history.








12 comments :

  1. So how did Arthur obtained Excalibur after if Clarent was the sword in the stone?

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  2. Replies
    1. I can say, without a doubt, this is the most British description of that event I've ever seen.

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    2. Of course it is. It's from Monty Python and the Holy Grail...

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    3. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.

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  3. Why does this sound like a tumblr post

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  4. Please do your research.

    Clarent is NOT the sword in the stone. It’s usually said to be caliburn, but it WASN’T originally named.

    And in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s account, Mordred WASN’T Arthur’s “illegitimate son.” That was FABRICATED by the French propaganda authors, of the French prose cycles.

    More so, Clarent was inverted by the author of “Alliterative Morte Arthure.”

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    1. We can all have entitled nerd arguments about the "reality" of a fictional legend that echoes across several cultures and has been constantly reinvented since the 12th century, or we can just not.

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    2. Thank you for pointing this out. I'm still trying to figure out where the idea that Clarent is the sword in the stone came from. The earliest source I've been able to find that suggests this is from 1960 - William Matthews' The Tragedy of Arthur: A Study of the Alliterative "Morte Arthure."

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. wait I thought the sword in the stone wa Caliburn, hence the name Excalibur

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