Excalibur

Forms and etymology[edit]

The name Excalibur ultimately derives from the Welsh Caledfwlch (Breton Kaledvoulc'h, Middle Cornish Calesvol), which is a compound of caled, 'hard', and bwlch, 'breach, cleft'.^[1] Caledfwlch appears in several early Welsh works, including the prose tale Culhwch and Olwen (c. 11th–12th century). The name was later used in Welsh adaptations of foreign material such as the Bruts (chronicles), which were based on Geoffrey of Monmouth. It is often considered to be related to the phonetically similar Caladbolg, a sword borne by several figures from Irish mythology, although a borrowing of Caledfwlch from the Irish Caladbolg has been considered unlikely by Rachel Bromwich and D. Simon Evans. They suggest instead that both names "may have similarly arisen at a very early date as generic names for a sword".^[1][2] In the late 15th to early 16th-century Middle Cornish play Beunans Ke, Arthur's sword is called Calesvol, which is etymologically an exact Middle Cornish cognate of the Welsh Caledfwlch. It is unclear if the name was borrowed from the Welsh (if so, it must have been an early loan, for phonological reasons), or represents an early, pan-Brittonic traditional name for Arthur's sword.^[3]


Welsh author Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his Latin chronicle Historia Regum Britanniae (The History of the Kings of Britain, c. 1136), Latinised the name of Arthur's sword as Caliburnus (possibly influenced by the Medieval Latin spelling calibs of Classical Latin chalybs, from the Greek chályps (χάλυψ), 'steel'). Most Celticists consider Geoffrey's Caliburnus to be derivative of a lost Old Welsh text in which bwlch (Old Welsh bulc[h]) had not yet been lenited to fwlch (Middle Welsh vwlch or uwlch).^[4][5][1] Geoffrey Gaimar, in his Old French chronicle Estoire des Engleis (1134–1140), mentions Arthur and his sword: "this Constantine was the nephew of Arthur, who had the sword Caliburc" ("Cil Costentin, li niès Artur, Ki out l'espée Caliburc").^[6][7] In Wace's Roman de Brut (c. 1150–1155), composed in Old French, the sword is called Caliburn (Chaliburne, Caliburne, Calibuerne),^[9][11] Calabrum, Callibourc, Calabrun, Chalabrun,^[a] and Escalibor (with additional variant spellings such as Chalabrum, Calibore, Callibor, Caliborne, Calliborc, Escallibore^[b] found in various continental manuscripts).^[13][12][c] Various other spellings in the later medieval Arthurian literature have included Calibourch, Calibourn, Calibourne, Caliburc, Escaliber, Escalibur, Excalibor, and finally the familiar Excalibur.^[16][17]