The Untold Truth Of Excalibur

The Sword in the Stone is not Excalibur, but it's a pretty important part of the legend of Arthur and so it's worth also mentioning that it might have actually been based on a real thing. 

There is an actual real sword stuck in an actual real stone, and if you're ever in Tuscany, Italy, you can see it with your own eyes in the Montesiepi chapel southwest of Siena. It looks pretty remarkably like the sword of legend — a piece of bedrock with just the hilt, wooden grip, and a short length of blade sticking out of it. According to the Vintage News, though, the Italians don't have an Arthurian explanation for how it got there. Their story says the sword was thrust into the rock by an Italian knight named Galgano Guidotti, who was renouncing war in favor of becoming a hermit. Frankly, one doesn't really sound that much better than the other, but good for you Galgano. 

For a long time people thought this sword was a fake, but recent tests have dated it to the 12th century, which is around the time that Guidotti is said to have put it there. Research also identified a large cavity beneath the sword, which they think might be a grave. But they'd have to break apart the stone to know for sure, which would ruin the whole sword-in-the-stone thing, and no one wants to go that far.

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