Q 01/05

In the romances, the sword in the stone first appears in a churchyard on the eve of which feast?

A) Christmas

B) Easter

C) Pentecost

D) Midsummer

Answer · why

A) Christmas

Merlin had foretold that only 'the true king' - the rightful heir of Uther - could draw it.

Q 02/05

The name Excalibur ultimately derives from a sword name in which language?

A) Welsh

B) Latin

C) Old Norse

D) Hebrew

Answer · why

A) Welsh

Caledfwlch combines 'caled' (hard) and 'bwlch' (breach or cleft); the Cornish play Beunans Ke calls it Calesvol.

Q 03/05

Geoffrey of Monmouth Latinised the sword's name as what in his Historia Regum Britanniae?

A) Caliburnus

B) Escalibor

C) Gladius Rex

D) Ferrum Britanniae

Answer · why

A) Caliburnus

The spelling may have been nudged by the Latin 'chalybs', meaning steel; French writers turned it into Escalibor and finally Excalibur.

Q 04/05

According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, where was the sword forged?

A) Avalon

B) Camelot

C) Tintagel

D) Glastonbury

Answer · why

A) Avalon

It is the same island where the wounded Arthur is later taken to be healed after Camlann.

Q 05/05

The 'sword in the stone' motif first appears in a poem of about 1200 by which French writer?

A) Robert de Boron

B) Chrétien de Troyes

C) Wace

D) Marie de France

Answer · why

A) Robert de Boron

In his version the sword sits in an anvil atop a stone that appears in a churchyard on the eve of a great feast.