illustration: Matthew Lopz
'And there I saw mage Merlin, whose vast wit And hundred winters are but as the hands Of loyal vassals toiling for their liege.
'And near him stood the Lady of the Lake, Who knows a subtler magic than his own -
- Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful.
She gave the King his huge cross-hilted sword, Whereby to drive the heathen out: a mist Of incense curled about her, and her face Wellnigh was hidden in the minster gloom;
But there was heard among the holy hymns A voice as of the waters, for she dwells Down in a deep;
calm, whatsoever storms May shake the world, and when the surface rolls, Hath power to walk the waters like our Lord.
'There likewise I beheld Excalibur Before him at his crowning borne, the sword That rose from out the bosom of the lake, And Arthur rowed across and took it -
- rich With jewels, elfin Urim, on the hilt, Bewildering heart and eye -
- the blade so bright That men are blinded by it -
- on one side, Graven in the oldest tongue of all this world,
"Take me,"
but turn the blade and ye shall see, And written in the speech ye speak yourself,
"Cast me away!"
And sad was Arthur's face Taking it, but old Merlin counselled him,
"Take thou and strike! the time to cast away Is yet far-off."
So this great brand the king Took, and by this will beat his foemen down.'
-- Idylls Of The King, Tennyson
illustration: Matthew Lopz
Excalibur is the famous sword of king Arthur, delivered him by the Lady of the Lake.
Water especially bodies of water, is (fittingly) of deep spiritual importance, playing a major role in all religion, it fulfills four major roles:
As being representative of the circular nature of life, to quote Solomon in Ecclesiastes 1:7:
"All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again."
As a source of life, such as in deutronomy 23:
"My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass."
As a way of bringing divine vengence such as the great flood in Genesis or the waters of the Red Sea descending on the Egyptians in pursuit of the Israelites.
Finally as a means of purification as in baptism.
The story of Excalibur embodies all of these qualities:
Excalibur is then an emblem of the qualities you might associate with the colour white, of purity and goodness but also representative of the scarlet: war, bloodshed and might.
When Arthur took Excalibur, equally Excalibur took Arthur, the qualities of Excalibur are the qualities of Arthur, the qualities of Arthur are the qualities of Excalibur.
Excalibur it is clear isn't an ordinary object, but a mystical one.
Mystical objects exist on a platonic level, they are "universal forms" separate but not apart from the physical world, existing in a universe of pure truth, all reason and learning is recollecting these objects which we encountered when that was our home as well.
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