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Excalibur is one of two mythical swords of King Arthur. In surviving accounts of Arthur, two originally separate legends of his sword's origin have been retained. The sword that Arthur alone was able to draw from the stone, ( The Sword in the Stone), thus denoting his kingship, was later broken. The true sword "Excalibur" with its scabbard, was given to Arthur by the Lady of the Lake. On his death, it was eventually returned to the Lady of the Lake by Sir Bedivere.
Thus, in Welsh legend, Arthur's sword is known as "Caliburn", which is thought by some to be a corruption of the name "Caledvwlch" or in Irish " Caladbolg" which means "hard lightning", a magic sword in the Mabinogion.
Geoffrey of Monmouth also calls Arthur's sword "Caliburn" in his "History of the Kings of Britain", and it is thought that the name Excalibur is a corruption of this usage. The legend of Excalibur was expanded upon in the "Vulgate (i.e. vernacular, in this case Old French) Cycle," an Arthurian cycle written ca.1230 - 1250, that was very influential in the development of the Arthurian romances. The Vulgate Prose Merlin and the later continuation called Suite du Merlin provide fresh details of the early life of Arthur. There the sword is called "Escalibor." The Lady of the Lake in Sir Thomas Malory's Book of Balin calls the sword "Excalibur, that is as to say, as Cut-steel."Excalibur's scabbard has the magical power to protect its bearer from harm (and to prevent the bearer from suffering further harm from wounds he might already have received). It is the theft of the scabbard by Morgan Le Fay that leads to Arthur's eventual death.
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