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Arthur, chapter one

Merlin prophecy; Excalibur; the reluctance to recognize Arthur.  Great start to the book, wonderful tales.

from Wikipedia

In Arthurian romance, a number of explanations are given for Arthur's possession of Excalibur. In Robert de Boron's Merlin, Arthur obtained the British throne by pulling a sword from a stone. (The story of the Sword in the Stone has an analogue in some versions of the story of Sigurd, whose father, Sigmund, draws the sword Gram out of the tree Barnstokkr where it is embedded by the Norse god Odin.) In this account, the act could not be performed except by "the true king," meaning the divinely appointed king or true heir of Uther Pendragon. This sword is thought by many to be the famous Excalibur, and its identity is made explicit in the later Prose Merlin, part of the Lancelot-Grail cycle.[12] This version also appears in the 1938 Arthurian novel The Sword in the Stone by British author T. H. White, and the Disney adaptation. They both quote the line from Thomas Malory in the 15th century; "Whoso Pulleth Out This Sword of this Stone and Anvil, is Rightwise King Born of all England".[13] The challenge of drawing a sword from a stone also appears in the Arthurian legends of Galahad, whose achievement of the task indicates that he is destined to find the Holy Grail .
However, in what is called the Post-Vulgate Cycle, Excalibur was given to Arthur by the Lady of the Lake sometime after he began to reign. She calls the sword "Excalibur, that is as to say as Cut-steel." In the Vulgate Mort Artu, Arthur orders Griflet to throw the sword into the enchanted lake. After two failed attempts (as he felt such a great sword should not be thrown away), he finally complies with the wounded king's request and a hand emerges from the lake to catch it, a tale which becomes attached to Bedivere instead in Malory and the English tradition.[14] Malory records both versions of the legend in his Le Morte d'Arthur, naming both swords as Excalibur.[15][16]

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