Where did I get the idea?
Uh....FRiend, from your earlier post. I read it incorrectly now, didn’t I. Oops.
“King Arthur had a famous sword and Joanne d’Arc found some ancient swords hidden behind the fireplace of an old building ~ they were considered rather impressive.
....
29 posted on Monday, August 29, 2011 9:57:35 PM by muawiyah”
You see there'd been a period of SWORD CONTROL and no one was supposed to have been just hiding swords behind the fireplace, or under it, or wherever somebody hid those swords and then informed this woman of where they were.
You may well have read some of the stories based on the Arthurian legends found in several spots in France. Those tales coincidentally have Arthur (or "Ad") as a minor character with the real hero, Myrrdin (Merlin) getting all the main action AND replanting the vinyards.
BTW, whether they are legends or actual history (where kings and grand viziers remarkably have the same names generation after generation for hundreds of years) I pay attention to them in my continuing quest for ancient bearers of my surname.
Latest discovery along that line was the discovery that the broad area of Britain that Arthur gave to the Saxons used to be a latifundia with that name! Then, one of the towns where Merlin replanted the grapes also had that name, as did a big chunk of Brittany where the Bretons originally settled.
It doesn't matter if the legends are true ~ it does matter where the people settled or moved from who carried those legends.
Then, there's Jeanne d'Arc. Her political sponsor was Rene d'Anjou. Among his numerous companions are many people who also had my surname ~ just remarkable stuff ~ unbelievable events in fact.