[ad_1]
French police are investigating the disappearance of Durandal, a sword linked to mythology akin to the fabled British King Arthur’s Excalibur, after it mysteriously vanished from the Pyrenean village of Rocamadour, the place it had been wedged right into a rock excessive off the bottom for about 1,300 years.
The semi-legendary knight Roland wielded Durandal, which was stated to be indestructible and the sharpest of all blades. Their adventures collectively are chronicled within the eleventh century epic poem “The Tune of Roland,” which now resides within the College of Oxford’s Bodleian Library in England.
Ken Wiedemann/iStock/Getty
The poem, the primary identified reference to the sword, says an angel gave Durandal to the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne, who entrusted it to Roland.
The Italian epic “Orlando Enraged” says Durandal additionally belonged at one level to the Trojan prince Hector.
In keeping with the French legend, Durandal ended up in Rocamadour when Roland, failing to destroy his trusted blade, threw it so far as he might to forestall his enemies from getting their fingers on it. It’s stated to have landed within the southern French village and lodged itself in a rock wall about 33 toes off the bottom.
That’s the place it had been ever since, and it was a well-liked vacationer attraction for the city. However 1,300 years later, it is gone lacking, presumed stolen. The city, identified additionally for its goat’s cheese, is bereft.
Wirestock/iStock/Getty
“We will miss Durandal. It has been a part of Rocamadour for hundreds of years, and there is not a information who does not level it out when he visits,” Dominique Lenfant, the city’s mayor, was quoted as saying by La Dépêche, the French newspaper that broke the story.
“Rocamadour feels it has been robbed of part of itself,” Lenfant stated. “Even when it is a legend, the destinies of our village and this sword are entwined.”
[ad_2]
Source link
