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An ancient sword known as the French version of King Arthur’s legendary “Excalibur” has mysteriously vanished from the town where, according to local lore, it had remained lodged in a rock for 1,300 years.
The Durandal sword appears to have been taken by a thief from its stone in the tiny medieval town of Rocamadour, where it was one of the town’s main attractions, The Telegraph reported.
For centuries it’s been believed the sword once belonged to Roland, a semi-legendary knight who bravely fought for Charlemagne in the eighth century.
Officials in Rocamadour have launched an investigation into the disappearance of the sword, which was yanked from its spot in a cliff wall some 100 feet off the ground.
Durandal was an indestructible sword and the sharpest in the world, able to cut through stone with a single blow, according to the legend.
The sword’s magical qualities were described in the 11th-century epic poem “The Song of Roland.” The poem, written in old French, is the oldest surviving major work of French literature, with the sole surviving copy stashed at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, according to the Telegraph.
Charlemagne received Durandal from an angel before he gifted it to his best soldier, according to the legend.
Roland, before his valiant death at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass, tried to break the sword on the rocks to prevent his enemies from taking it — but even he could not destroy the sword.
The knight threw the sword into the air, which then traveled hundreds of miles before landing in the cliff in Rocamadour, legend says.
The disappearance has devastated the locals.
”We’re going to miss Durandal. It’s been part of Rocamadour for centuries, and there’s not a guide who doesn’t point it out when he visits,” mayor Dominique Lenfant told La Dépêche, a French newspaper.
“Rocamadour feels it’s been robbed of a part of itself, but even if it’s a legend, the destinies of our village and this sword are entwined,” she added.
Police are trying to determine how someone could have scaled 100 feet of the sheer rock face to snatch the sword.
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