Why The Sword In The Stone Remains An Enigma

Publish date: 2024-05-08

Yes, there really is an actual sword in a stone somewhere, and it may in fact be the sword in the stone from Arthurian legend.

In the verdant hills of Tuscany, about 30 kilometers southwest of Sienna, Italy, rests Monstesiepi Chapel, couched within the remains of an ancient abbey, as outlined on Aleteia. Pass through the walls of a medieval courtyard and down a spiral staircase, and there, under glass, is a boulder, from which juts the hilt and blade of a sword. As described on Quora, Luigi Garlaschelli of the University of Pavia used radar to determine that there is, in fact, a one- to two-meter-long blade buried within the stone, and possibly even a body beneath it. Until recently, the sword was believed to be a fake, but, as Atlas Obscura reports, recent studies indicate that the sword's construction is consistent with the late 1100s and early 1200s, shortly after Geoffrey of Monmouth died.

Did we mention that the sword is guarded by a pair of mummified hands? And that those hands carbon-date to the 12th century? Legend says that anyone who tries to lift the sword out of the stone will have their hands ripped off. It's not known who the hands belong to, but we do know who supposedly placed the sword in the stone (that's right: in the stone): Galgano Guidotti, declared a saint by Pope Lucius III in 1185, four years after Guidotti's death.

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