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["If the sword really dates to 1180, decades before the first literary reference to the "sword in the stone," it would support the theory that the Celtic myth of King Arthur and his sword Excalibur developed in Italy after the death of Galgano."]

["Hmm..Let's see, "King" Arthur, according to what little is known of him, appears to have lived in the 5th century AD, and been Welsh, and here we have a sword that has been dated to the 12th century, embedding in a rock in Italy."]

??????

Okay, I think I've confused you, a bit..I apologize.

King Arthur and his knights (as we know them) are litterary inventions. There is no Round Table, no Court of Camelot,and if I have to point this out, some of the characters in those tales (particularly Lancelot) are French and obviously later inventions slipped into the tales.

In ancient history, evidence exists that indicates that sometime in the 4-5th century AD, there was a Welsh warlord named Arthur (Arturus in Latin)and that his main claim to fame is that he kept the invading Saxons at bay for at least a generation or two. This evidence, however, is flimsy, and is mostly based on the fact that there seems to be an explosion of young boys named Arthur in the later stages of this time frame (from village rolls, church records, etc). And from a few scattered bits of poetry and such proclaiming him King of the Britons.

The basis for all of the King Arthur tales is Celtic in origin, and very ancient. The idea of lake spirits handing out weapons, Merlin, and even the Holy Grail, have their roots in Celtic myth (the Grail Quest may have been a retelling in more modern times of the story of Cu'Chullain's (sp?)magic cauldron).

By the 12th century, these tales had been romanticized and told in European couts all over the continent. The Sword in the Stone tale never appears in the ancient myths about Arthur. In the original tales, Arthur receives his sword from the Lady of the Lake.

The name Excalibur is Latin, whereas in the Welsh, the sword if known as Caledfwlch. The names od the Round Table knights, such as Kay (Cei), Gawain, Owain, Derfel, and other caharacters, such as Igraine, Guinevere, etc. are all Welsh. Galahad, depending on which version of the story you hear, is the purest knight, while in others, it is Percival.
Percival, by the way, is a Fanco-German invention.

The sword in the stone tale is an older invention, and the point of it was that Arthur, by pulling the sword from it, was to be the future king of the Britons. It is symbolic, and a powerful symbol at that. It would not surprise me that other European rulers would not try to use similar sybolism to validate their own claims to power.

"["If the sword really dates to 1180, decades before the first literary reference to the "sword in the stone," it would support the theory that the Celtic myth of King Arthur and his sword Excalibur developed in Italy after the death of Galgano."]

["Hmm..Let's see, "King" Arthur, according to what little is known of him, appears to have lived in the 5th century AD, and been Welsh, and here we have a sword that has been dated to the 12th century, embedding in a rock in Italy."]"

This is very simple guys: Though Arthur may well have lived in the 5th (though I think its the 6th) Century, WRITTEN REFERENCES and/or LEGENDS of Arthur only date back to AFTER this Italian sword legend is supposed to have occured. Therefore the legend of Arthur and the stone, may have in fact come from this (actual) sword in the stone. This doesn't make King Arthur necessarily a myth, just the story of the sword in the stone with him--got it???

Pretty cool though, that there's a real sword in a stone...