Chapter 37

Geoffrey of Monmouth and the evolution of Excalibur

King Arthur’s legendary sword – Caliburnus in Latin, Caledfwlch in Welsh, Escalibor in Old French, and Excalibur in Middle and Modern English – evolves in its cultural meaning from its earliest depictions in quasi-historical Latin texts through twentieth-century films and novels. As evidenced in a range of sources, including Culhwch ac Olwen, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae, Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte D’Arthur, Lord Alfred Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon, and John Boorman’s Excalibur, Excalibur symbolically confers political and spiritual legitimacy as it assists in defining Arthurian values, with its meaning shifting with the times and the cultural moment in which it (re)appears.