King Arthur ’s magical sword in the stone may be the stuff of legend (and many a film and TV adaptation), but France has had its own real-life Excalibur for centuries.
The Durandal sword has earned its own mythological credentials having been embedded high up in a rock in the south-central village of Rocamadour for some 1,300 years.
And yet, on Saturday, 22 June, the sword suddenly vanished from its rocky bed, and no one can work out how the thief took it.
Durandal was the legendary sword of Roland, a renowned warrior and the protagonist of the 11th century epic poem La Chanson de Roland .
According to the story – which is the oldest surviving major work of French literature – Durandal was the sharpest sword of all time – capable of slicing through boulders with a single strike.
The myth also states that within its golden hilt was embedded a tooth of Saint Peter, the blood of Saint Basil the Great, the hair of Saint Denis, and a piece of the Virgin Mary’s clothes.
The indestructible weapon was said to have been brought by an angel to the then-King of the Franks, Charlemagne, who subsequently bequeathed it to Roland.
Then, before his death at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass, Roland allegedly tried to destroy the sword on the rocks to prevent his enemies from taking it. But his efforts were in vain.
Eventually, he hurled it into the air, in a last-ditch attempt to save it from their clutches.
Miraculously, it travelled hundreds of miles before embedding itself in the cliff face of Rocamadour.
“We will miss Durandal. She is part of Rocamadour. Rocamadour feels stripped of a part of herself,” the town’s mayor, Dominique Lenfant, told local paper La Dépêche du midi .
“Even if it is a legend, the destinies of our village and this sword are intertwined."
Nevertheless, according to Father Florent Millet, rector of the sanctuary of Rocamadour, the top tourist attraction was merely a worthless replica.
He told ActuLot that the “relic”, which draws countless visitors to the UNESCO World Heritage town, was the “upteenth copy” of the original.
Nevertheless, the sentimental (and touristic) value of the sword has not been underestimated by authorities.
Indeed, it is considered so precious that when Paris’s Cluny Museum requested to exhibit it in 2011, a town councillor and a security guard accompanied it on its journey, as The Telegraph notes.
Now, police are desperately trying to work out how someone could have stolen it.
It was, after all, wedged some 10 metres (33 feet) up in the rock face, attached by a chain, and with no means of access.
All we can say is, whoever took it might become the stuff of legend one day themself.
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