>>3061043i was posting excerpts from arthurian stuff for a while but stopped because i got lazy. let's talk about the possible reasons why arthur's sword in the stone/caliburn broke in his fight against sir pellinore in malory's le morte d'arthur (in my copy its book 1 chapter 23). easiest answer would be maybe the sword wasnt meant to be used in a real fight because it was a status symbol. or maybe a chivalry reason, arthur was really mad the whole time they were fighting. perhaps fighting while really mad is against the rules of chivalry. sir gawain's pentangle in the green knight story talks about the virtues of generosity, fellowship, purity, courtesy, and compassion. extreme anger might be seen as impure, uncourteous, and not compassionate. maybe its a sort of combination of both status and emotions? arthur was still pretty young and a new king at this point, he is super mad at pellinore the whole fight while pellinore isnt taking it super seriously, pellinore makes arthur joust with him a few times before they fight with their swords. pellinore says "ye are a passing good jouster... for the love of knighthood let us joust once again." i sort of think pellinore is just enjoying the fight, messing around with arthur. so maybe this chapter shows arthur as a rash young lad getting schooled by a king with more experience? but pellinore also does try to kill arthur, so that kind of doesn't fit what im going for here. but that is only after arthur refuses to yield and takes of pellinore's helmet, which makes pellinore scared for his life.
