An historic sword steeped in mythology surrounding the Emperor Charlemagne has mysteriously vanished from the sheer rock face of the village Rocamadour in southwest France the place it was embedded for hundreds of years, leaving the inhabitants reeling from the suspected theft.
The Durandal sword was the legendary weapon of the knight Roland, who, in response to the twelfth century epic poem La Chanson de Roland, served as a commander beneath the Frankish king Charlemagne throughout his religiously motivated marketing campaign in Spain. The sword was stated to include quite a lot of relics — together with a tooth of Saint Peter and a shred of the gown worn by Saint Mary — which rendered it phenomenally sharp and nigh on invincible in battle.
Also the paladin Roland both tried to cover it beneath himself as he died on the battlefield or threw it excessive right into a cliff. There is a sword in a cliff that’s supposedly the sword Durandal, or (extra probably) a duplicate since Henry The Young King can also be stated to have stolen it pic.twitter.com/ARKvm8T5x0
— Shaun 🍉🇵🇸 (@shmaba) September 20, 2022
One of the threads of French folklore surrounding the destiny of the blade claims that the sword was forged into the stone of Rocamadour upon Roland’s demise to stop it from falling into the palms of his enemies, and that there it had remained till its obvious theft on June 22.
Needless to say, the sword that has come to be related to the legend hasn’t really been embedded in Rocamadour’s stone for properly over a thousand years. As famous by French newspaper La Dépêche, we all know for a undeniable fact that it was briefly taken right down to be exhibited by the Cluny Museum in Paris again in 2011. However, native Mayor Dominique Lenfant insisted it had been an vital fixture within the city for hundreds of years, and that its loss is being keenly felt by the city’s residents.
“We will miss Durandal. It has been a part of Rocamadour for hundreds of years, there may be not a single information who doesn’t present it throughout their go to,” Lenfant informed La Dépêche, through Google Translate. “Rocamadour feels stripped of part of itself, even when it’s a legend, the destinies of our village and this sword are linked.”
Quite how the thieves have been capable of extricate the sword from its perch embedded and chained within the rockface virtually 10 meters above the bottom is now a focal point for the native gendarmerie, who’re reportedly investigating the assumed theft.
The Durandal sword is likely one of the legendary blades, very like King Arthur’s Excalibur, whose cultural significance has endured to the current day. As such, references to its identify and that of the knight Roland can present in quite a lot of well-liked online game collection, starting from Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy, to Granblue Fantasy and even in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s Siege of Paris DLC.
Hopefully, the real-world blade related to the twelfth century legend will quickly be reclaimed and positioned again within the stone of France. In the meantime, why not learn up on how the Vatican is about to canonize its first gamer saint, who was referred to as ‘God’s Influencer’ owing to his work documenting miracles on-line.
Anthony is a contract contributor protecting science and video gaming information for IGN. He has over eight years expertise of protecting breaking developments in a number of scientific fields and completely no time on your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer
