Source: https://xkcd.com/1521/

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That seems like an awful lot of hassle when all I wanted was a cool sword.

transcript

[Megan walks up to a sword in a stone.] [Megan attempts to pull the sword out of the stone.] [A beam of light and music plays as she removes the sword.] [While standing with the swords a voice from the sky speaks in gray shaky letters:] Celestial voice: The Throne of England is yours [Megan takes out her smart phone and searches:] Wikipedia England [Megan reads on her phone.] [Megan, still reading from her phone, starts to replace the sword back into the stone.]

(From explainxkcd.com)

      • Skua@kbin.earth
        22·
        5 days ago

        In the oldest versions (Robert de Boron’s poems, in this case) it was just straight up the guy that God approved of. The line, translated from French by John Conlee and then updated to modern English by me, is:

        “Who takes this sword out of this stone should be king by the election of Jesus Christ.”

        However, the story went through a lot of changes over time. De Boron was the one to introduce the idea of the sword in the stone to the written record, but the tale of Arthur and Excalibur are quite a lot older. Additionally, later versions actually separate out the sword in the stone and Excalibur, with Arthur breaking the sword in the stone in battle and then receiving Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake later

        • Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.netEnglish
          3·
          4 days ago

          Playing Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon. It’s a grimdark tale based on Arthurian myth, set ages after Arthur’s death, where you are possessed by the spirit of Arthur who wishes to see what has become of his kingdom, yet has no memories as his soul has for some reason been split into pieces. Cannot wait to actually get deeper into the game’s lore and see how it uses the mythology.