BOOK
is born, Arthur is wrapped in a cloth of gold, the same glittering raiment which in the Homeric hymn the nymphs wrap round the
new-born Phoibos, and like the infant Cyrus, who is arrayed in the
same splendid garb, is placed in the hands of a poor man whom the
persons charged with him, like Harpagos, meet at the postern-gate of
the castle. In his house the child grows like Cyrus and Romulus
and others, a model of human beauty, and like them he cannot long
abide in his lowly station. Some one must be chosen king, and the
trial is to be that which Odin appointed for the recovery of the sword
Gram, which he had thrust up to the hilt in the great roof-tree of
Volsung's hall. " There was seen in the churchyard, at the east end
by the high altar, a great stone formed square, and in the midst
thereof was like an anvil of steel a foot high, and therein stuck a fair
sword naked by the point, and letters of gold were written about the
sword that said thus, " Whoso pulleth out this sword out of this stone
and anvil is rightwise born king of England.'" The incident by
which Arthur's title is made known answers to the similar attempts
made in Teutonic folk-lore to cheat Boots, the younger son, of his
lawful inheritance. Sir Kay, leaving his sword at home, sends
Arthur for it, and Arthur not being able to find it, draws the weapon
imbedded in the stone as easily as Theseus performed the same
exploit. Sir Kay, receiving it, forthwith claims the kingdom. Sir
Ector, much doubting his tale, drives him to confess that it was
Arthur who gave him the sword, and then bids Arthur replace it in
the solid block. None now can draw it forth but Arthur, to whose
touch it yields without force or pressure. Sir Ector then kneels to
Arthur, who, supposing him to be his father, shrinks from the honour ;
but Ector, like the shepherds in the myths of Oidipous, Romulus, or
Cyrus, replies, " I was never your father nor of your blood, but I wote
well ye are of an higher blood than I weened ye were." But although
like the playmates of Cyrus, the knights scorn to be governed by a
boy whom they hold to be baseborn, yet they are compelled to yield
to the ordeal of the stone, and Arthur, being made king, forgives them
alL The sword thus gained is in Arthur's first war so bright in his
enemies' eyes that it gives liglit like thirty torches, as the glorious
radiance flashes up to heaven when Achilleus dons his armour. But
this weapon is not to be the blade with which Arthur is to perform
his greatest exploits. Like the sword of Odin in the Volsung story,
from the story of Ulhcr as told by gods of the heaven and the h'ght, and Jeffrey of Monmouth or in the more as such is exercised by I'hoibos the lish detailed romance. This power of trans- god, and Dionysos the lion and bear, formation is a special attribute of the
