How did King Arthur draw the sword from the stone and claim the throne of Britain? Here we present a translation of a medieval Latin account recounting this famous episode, along with Arthur’s victories, conquests and final battle.
By Christopher Berard and Morris Tichenor
At the Abbey of Saint Denis-en-France, the Benedictine monk and chronicler Guillaume de Nangis (d. 1300) wrote a Latin World Chronicle from Creation to AD 1300. The text contains an account of the reign of King Arthur of Britain that includes the celebrated Sword in the Stone Episode. This iconic scene was not traditionally part of the ‘historical’ account of King Arthur’s biography.
The pseudo-historical Brut chronicle story of King Arthur, which originates with Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae [History of the Kings of Britain] (c. 1136), has Arthur, aged fifteen, succeed to the throne of Britain without contest. Geoffrey’s Historia implies that Arthur was widely known to have been King Uther Pendragon’s son and heir apparent. The prose redaction of the Estoire de Merlin [Story of Merlin] (c. 1210), an Old French romance attributed to Robert de Boron (fl. 1191–1212), contains the earliest known attestation of the Sword in the Stone Episode, and it is built around an alternative history of Arthur’s childhood. According to it, Merlin compels King Uther Pendragon and Queen Ygraine to give up their son (Arthur) as a newborn. The enchanter sees to it that the child is baptized ‘Arthur’ and adopted by the worthy knight Sir Antor and his wife. The couple raise Arthur as their own alongside their biological son Kay.
King Arthur depicted by Matthew Paris in the 13th century – British Library Cotton MS Claudius D VI
At the dawn of the fourteenth century, the Sword in the Stone Episode had evidently become so firmly rooted in Arthurian legend in France that Guillaume could not resist including it in his Latin World Chronicle.
Our translation is based on ‘Appendix A: Latin Excerpts from BL Royal 13 E IV’, ed. Daniel Williman and Karen Corsano, in Daniel Williman and Karen Corsano, The World Chronicle of Guillaume de Nangis: A Manuscript’s Journey from Saint-Denis to St Pancras (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2020), pp. 177–88, at pp. 180–82.
Translation
(AD 466) When King Uther Pendragon of Britain was being burdened by a longstanding illness, the leaders of the Saxons, Octa and Eosa, having assembled an army, began to lay waste to Britain. The king had sent his knights against them, and they accomplished little. Hearing that his adversaries were emboldened on account of his absence, Uther ordered that he be brought to battle on a litter. He, thus brought to battle on a litter, certainly inspired his men for the battle, but caused laughter in the enemy because he had come to battle half-dead. With the confrontation beginning in the king’s presence, the Britons obtained victory and killed the leaders of the Saxons, Octa and Eosa. Then the king, having become cheerful as though he had recovered his health, raised himself up and said: ‘Those wastrels were mocking me, but I would rather overcome them in my half-dead state than be overcome by them as a healthy man. For it is more outstanding to die with honor than to live with shame’.
A little later, King Uther Pendragon died and Arthur, his son, was elevated to the throne. Even now the tongues of [various] peoples resonate with his marvelous deeds, although several seem to be far-fetched. But how did he become king when it was not known that he was the son of the king? Some say it happened this way:
Once King Uther Pendragon died, the bishops and barons convened at Gloucester to select for themselves a king and, in the church, poured forth prayers to the Lord for this reason. Then, a marble stone appeared in front of the doors of the church by divine inspiration, or, more likely as I reckon, by Merlin’s incantations. A sword was stuck in the stone and on the sword were gold letters that read: ‘Whoso pulleth me out will be king’. After this was seen, everyone went out of the church giving thanks to God, and the counts, barons, and knights, according to order of rank, on the advice of the bishops, attempted to pull the sword from the stone, but they could not do anything. They were astonished and turned back, but Arthur went there and without any delay drew the sword and inserted it back in the stone. Arthur, [you see], had been raised in the home of Kay the Seneschal’s father; he believed that Kay’s father was his father; and, he had come to that town with that man, his ‘father’. After that happened, a cry was carried on high, the bishops and barons hurried about, and the people hurried about [too] when the truth was ascertained.
BnF MS Français 95 fol. 159v
The counts and barons indignantly asked for a three-day delay from the bishops and populace because they thought that Arthur was born from humble stock. On the third day they come and, just as before, they cannot pull the sword. Everyone saw this and shouted to Arthur to pull the sword. Then Arthur approached, pulled the sword, and thus miraculously obtained the kingdom of Britain. Then the mother of Kay the Seneschal explained to Arthur and to all the populace how he was the son of Uther Pendragon and how he was handed over to her by Merlin to be raised. And afterwards, thanks to Merlin who was alive at that time, they realized that all these things were true just as they had happened.
Here, having inherited the kingdom, Arthur defeated and put to flight the Saxons who had laid waste to Britain, and he felled many a Saxon with his own hands. He acquired Norway, Denmark, Ireland, and the remaining maritime islands. Moreover, he subjugated Flanders, Boulogne, Normandy, Touraine, Anjou, Poitou, Auvergne, Gascony, and the borders of Gaul with Hoel, count of Brittany, assisting him.
And thus, he was far more distinguished than his predecessors with respect to honor, fame, power, and generosity. Innate goodness had bestowed grace onto him to such an extent that he was loved by all peoples. He was indeed charming and robust of body, handsome in form, vigorous in arms, strong, brave, most generous, and adorned with all good customs. He increased the knighthood in so much as knights from all nations gave themselves over to him in armed service, suffering unheard of dangers as much for acquiring the honor of knighthood as for having the king’s love, and also they were all the better for knowing the knighthood of Gawain, the nephew of the same Arthur. Arthur himself was so glorious that on every great solemnity of the year he held his court, where kings subject to him, bishops, counts, barons and also knights came together from everywhere and were enriched by the king’s gifts.
Then on the day of the feast, with all the people taking their place in his palace, two archbishops crowned him; behind him, they led the way to the church with four kings holding four swords unsheathed in their hands in front of him. Before the queen, who was likewise crowned, four queens were holding white crowns, and they returned in the same fashion from the church to the palace after the divine office had been celebrated. The king, moreover, having had a feast prepared, arranged for only the chosen knights to sit at the Round Table so that none of them would seem to be superior or inferior to his neighbor. And thus, celebrating the greatest solemnities with exultation and joy, Arthur sent everyone home individually having been handsomely rewarded. Although many things are said about him, an even greater number are recorded about him in the deeds of the kings of Britain.
An illustration of King Arthur drawing the enchanted sword Excalibur from the sword. From the Vulgate Cycle manuscript (1316 CE) in the British Library, London.
(AD 494) Lucius Iberius, who had been elected to rule with Emperor Anastasius, comes into Gaul and seeks tribute through twelve senators from Arthur, king of Britain. Hearing this, Arthur, full of rage against the enemy, declares war, boards a ship, and comes ashore near Mont Saint-Michel, where he killed in battle a giant, who, indulging himself, had killed Helen, the niece of Hoel, count of Brittany, on the mountain next to Mont Saint-Michel. Then, having unified the army, he enters Gaul and comes to Langres, where he killed Emperor Lucius who was conquered in battle, and sent his head to the Romans in place of the tribute of Britain.
Arthur sent back his seneschal Kay, who had been gravely wounded in battle, to Chinon in Touraine which Kay had built; he died shortly thereafter from the aforesaid wounds and was buried near Chinon in a certain church of Saint Paul. As Arthur was preparing to advance further into Italy, desiring to conquer Rome, he heard that his nephew Mordred had captured his realm and imprisoned Guinevere his wife. Enraged on account of this, he returned [to Britain]. But Mordred came to the port and resisted him forcefully. In that battle, Gawain, the nephew of Arthur, having been struck by an arrow, died aboard ship in the forty-second year of his life. He was the flower of knighthood and was the shield for the oppressed, whose praise and honor endures throughout the ages.
And so, with Gawain having been killed, Arthur and all the others go almost out of their minds on account of grief; they follow Mordred towards Cornwall, where Arthur kills him in battle. But in that battle which was on Salisbury Plain all the Knights of the Round Table and everyone on both sides fell down dead. Arthur alone escaped death, but he was mortally wounded. Once he had climbed a certain mountain not far from the place of battle and near to the sea, his sister Morgan the Enchantress came to him and had him transported to the isle of Avalon, where he still lives just as his faithful Britons say, and they expect him to return with great solemnity.
Moreover, his wife Guinevere was made a nun at Caerleon after this; and Constantine, son of Cador, king of Cornwall, a kinsman of Arthur, obtained the kingdom of Britain, and after him there were a good number of rulers. Eventually, they were no longer able to bear the might of the Angles and Saxons, so that having been conquered they yielded to their law and to their name. And Aelle, the first of the race of Saxons, and Celin, the second, one succeeding the other in death, reigned among them for sixty-seven years.
Christopher Berard is the author of Arthurianism in Early Plantagenet England (Boydell & Brewer, 2019) and The Alliterative Morte Arthure as Christian Epic Poetry (Boydell & Brewer, forthcoming 2026). He completed his PhD at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Medieval Studies (2015), and he is currently an adjunct professor at Providence College.
Morris Tichenor is Associate Lecturer of Latin at the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts. He completed his PhD at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Medieval Studies (2019).
How did King Arthur draw the sword from the stone and claim the throne of Britain? Here we present a translation of a medieval Latin account recounting this famous episode, along with Arthur’s victories, conquests and final battle.
By Christopher Berard and Morris Tichenor
At the Abbey of Saint Denis-en-France, the Benedictine monk and chronicler Guillaume de Nangis (d. 1300) wrote a Latin World Chronicle from Creation to AD 1300. The text contains an account of the reign of King Arthur of Britain that includes the celebrated Sword in the Stone Episode. This iconic scene was not traditionally part of the ‘historical’ account of King Arthur’s biography.
The pseudo-historical Brut chronicle story of King Arthur, which originates with Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae [History of the Kings of Britain] (c. 1136), has Arthur, aged fifteen, succeed to the throne of Britain without contest. Geoffrey’s Historia implies that Arthur was widely known to have been King Uther Pendragon’s son and heir apparent. The prose redaction of the Estoire de Merlin [Story of Merlin] (c. 1210), an Old French romance attributed to Robert de Boron (fl. 1191–1212), contains the earliest known attestation of the Sword in the Stone Episode, and it is built around an alternative history of Arthur’s childhood. According to it, Merlin compels King Uther Pendragon and Queen Ygraine to give up their son (Arthur) as a newborn. The enchanter sees to it that the child is baptized ‘Arthur’ and adopted by the worthy knight Sir Antor and his wife. The couple raise Arthur as their own alongside their biological son Kay.
At the dawn of the fourteenth century, the Sword in the Stone Episode had evidently become so firmly rooted in Arthurian legend in France that Guillaume could not resist including it in his Latin World Chronicle.
Our translation is based on ‘Appendix A: Latin Excerpts from BL Royal 13 E IV’, ed. Daniel Williman and Karen Corsano, in Daniel Williman and Karen Corsano, The World Chronicle of Guillaume de Nangis: A Manuscript’s Journey from Saint-Denis to St Pancras (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2020), pp. 177–88, at pp. 180–82.
Translation
(AD 466) When King Uther Pendragon of Britain was being burdened by a longstanding illness, the leaders of the Saxons, Octa and Eosa, having assembled an army, began to lay waste to Britain. The king had sent his knights against them, and they accomplished little. Hearing that his adversaries were emboldened on account of his absence, Uther ordered that he be brought to battle on a litter. He, thus brought to battle on a litter, certainly inspired his men for the battle, but caused laughter in the enemy because he had come to battle half-dead. With the confrontation beginning in the king’s presence, the Britons obtained victory and killed the leaders of the Saxons, Octa and Eosa. Then the king, having become cheerful as though he had recovered his health, raised himself up and said: ‘Those wastrels were mocking me, but I would rather overcome them in my half-dead state than be overcome by them as a healthy man. For it is more outstanding to die with honor than to live with shame’.
A little later, King Uther Pendragon died and Arthur, his son, was elevated to the throne. Even now the tongues of [various] peoples resonate with his marvelous deeds, although several seem to be far-fetched. But how did he become king when it was not known that he was the son of the king? Some say it happened this way:
Once King Uther Pendragon died, the bishops and barons convened at Gloucester to select for themselves a king and, in the church, poured forth prayers to the Lord for this reason. Then, a marble stone appeared in front of the doors of the church by divine inspiration, or, more likely as I reckon, by Merlin’s incantations. A sword was stuck in the stone and on the sword were gold letters that read: ‘Whoso pulleth me out will be king’. After this was seen, everyone went out of the church giving thanks to God, and the counts, barons, and knights, according to order of rank, on the advice of the bishops, attempted to pull the sword from the stone, but they could not do anything. They were astonished and turned back, but Arthur went there and without any delay drew the sword and inserted it back in the stone. Arthur, [you see], had been raised in the home of Kay the Seneschal’s father; he believed that Kay’s father was his father; and, he had come to that town with that man, his ‘father’. After that happened, a cry was carried on high, the bishops and barons hurried about, and the people hurried about [too] when the truth was ascertained.
The counts and barons indignantly asked for a three-day delay from the bishops and populace because they thought that Arthur was born from humble stock. On the third day they come and, just as before, they cannot pull the sword. Everyone saw this and shouted to Arthur to pull the sword. Then Arthur approached, pulled the sword, and thus miraculously obtained the kingdom of Britain. Then the mother of Kay the Seneschal explained to Arthur and to all the populace how he was the son of Uther Pendragon and how he was handed over to her by Merlin to be raised. And afterwards, thanks to Merlin who was alive at that time, they realized that all these things were true just as they had happened.
Here, having inherited the kingdom, Arthur defeated and put to flight the Saxons who had laid waste to Britain, and he felled many a Saxon with his own hands. He acquired Norway, Denmark, Ireland, and the remaining maritime islands. Moreover, he subjugated Flanders, Boulogne, Normandy, Touraine, Anjou, Poitou, Auvergne, Gascony, and the borders of Gaul with Hoel, count of Brittany, assisting him.
And thus, he was far more distinguished than his predecessors with respect to honor, fame, power, and generosity. Innate goodness had bestowed grace onto him to such an extent that he was loved by all peoples. He was indeed charming and robust of body, handsome in form, vigorous in arms, strong, brave, most generous, and adorned with all good customs. He increased the knighthood in so much as knights from all nations gave themselves over to him in armed service, suffering unheard of dangers as much for acquiring the honor of knighthood as for having the king’s love, and also they were all the better for knowing the knighthood of Gawain, the nephew of the same Arthur. Arthur himself was so glorious that on every great solemnity of the year he held his court, where kings subject to him, bishops, counts, barons and also knights came together from everywhere and were enriched by the king’s gifts.
Then on the day of the feast, with all the people taking their place in his palace, two archbishops crowned him; behind him, they led the way to the church with four kings holding four swords unsheathed in their hands in front of him. Before the queen, who was likewise crowned, four queens were holding white crowns, and they returned in the same fashion from the church to the palace after the divine office had been celebrated. The king, moreover, having had a feast prepared, arranged for only the chosen knights to sit at the Round Table so that none of them would seem to be superior or inferior to his neighbor. And thus, celebrating the greatest solemnities with exultation and joy, Arthur sent everyone home individually having been handsomely rewarded. Although many things are said about him, an even greater number are recorded about him in the deeds of the kings of Britain.
(AD 494) Lucius Iberius, who had been elected to rule with Emperor Anastasius, comes into Gaul and seeks tribute through twelve senators from Arthur, king of Britain. Hearing this, Arthur, full of rage against the enemy, declares war, boards a ship, and comes ashore near Mont Saint-Michel, where he killed in battle a giant, who, indulging himself, had killed Helen, the niece of Hoel, count of Brittany, on the mountain next to Mont Saint-Michel. Then, having unified the army, he enters Gaul and comes to Langres, where he killed Emperor Lucius who was conquered in battle, and sent his head to the Romans in place of the tribute of Britain.
Arthur sent back his seneschal Kay, who had been gravely wounded in battle, to Chinon in Touraine which Kay had built; he died shortly thereafter from the aforesaid wounds and was buried near Chinon in a certain church of Saint Paul. As Arthur was preparing to advance further into Italy, desiring to conquer Rome, he heard that his nephew Mordred had captured his realm and imprisoned Guinevere his wife. Enraged on account of this, he returned [to Britain]. But Mordred came to the port and resisted him forcefully. In that battle, Gawain, the nephew of Arthur, having been struck by an arrow, died aboard ship in the forty-second year of his life. He was the flower of knighthood and was the shield for the oppressed, whose praise and honor endures throughout the ages.
And so, with Gawain having been killed, Arthur and all the others go almost out of their minds on account of grief; they follow Mordred towards Cornwall, where Arthur kills him in battle. But in that battle which was on Salisbury Plain all the Knights of the Round Table and everyone on both sides fell down dead. Arthur alone escaped death, but he was mortally wounded. Once he had climbed a certain mountain not far from the place of battle and near to the sea, his sister Morgan the Enchantress came to him and had him transported to the isle of Avalon, where he still lives just as his faithful Britons say, and they expect him to return with great solemnity.
Moreover, his wife Guinevere was made a nun at Caerleon after this; and Constantine, son of Cador, king of Cornwall, a kinsman of Arthur, obtained the kingdom of Britain, and after him there were a good number of rulers. Eventually, they were no longer able to bear the might of the Angles and Saxons, so that having been conquered they yielded to their law and to their name. And Aelle, the first of the race of Saxons, and Celin, the second, one succeeding the other in death, reigned among them for sixty-seven years.
Christopher Berard is the author of Arthurianism in Early Plantagenet England (Boydell & Brewer, 2019) and The Alliterative Morte Arthure as Christian Epic Poetry (Boydell & Brewer, forthcoming 2026). He completed his PhD at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Medieval Studies (2015), and he is currently an adjunct professor at Providence College.
Morris Tichenor is Associate Lecturer of Latin at the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts. He completed his PhD at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Medieval Studies (2019).
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