Arthurian Euhemerism

[steepholm]

I wonder who was the first person to suggest that the story of the sword in the stone might be an allegory about the discovery of iron smelting? They were very fond of interpreting classical legends that way in the Renaissance, but I never heard of the method being applied to anything Arthurian. I'd guess it was a 19th or 20th-century notion, but it would be good to trace it to source.

Comments

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

Or even of casting bronze? Could it be that old?

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

In this game, it can be anything you like! But for bronze I'd expect there to be something about the sacred marriage of Tin and Copper - or something...

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

I read that as 'Arthurian euphemism' and then was confused when I got to the iron-smelting part. ;)

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Is that a Grail in your pocket, or... :)

[owlfish]

No answer (yet), but your question successfully distracted me from work for the last half-hour. The highlight so far for me was discovering Rudyard Kipling's "Cold Iron" poem.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Sorry to have led you from the strait path...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's a notion I've only come across quite recently- which suggests to me- as someone who has been into Arthuriana all his life- that it's a relatively modern idea.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

You may be right. Alan Garner (in interview in 1989) claims to be making it up on the spot:

"I think there is in the Arthurian tradition embedded fragments of very ancient belief, which had survived orally and then were employed by Malory and others. For instance, I found in my own native tradition evidence which took me back to the first metalsmiths. Now, here I'm only playing with ideas. You're talking to a writer, and writers make things up. But when I had found this connection, if only in one instance, between King Arthur and the Bronze Age, I immediately saw the Sword in the Stone as a marvellous metaphor for the discovery of ore. The man who could extract from a stone the sword was indeed powerful. I'm now just throwing this idea at you as I make it up."

However, I've got a feeling that when I looked into it before one time it turned out to be older than 1989, at least. I can't remember where that feeling comes from, though!

[negothick.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember a Jane Yolen story in her Merlin's Booke about a group of female smiths whose central mystery is the smelting of iron--maybe from meteorites? I definitely remember the pun on "Excellent Calibre". The copyright of the book is 1986, but the story may be earlier.

[sovay]

The copyright of the book is 1986, but the story may be earlier.

Robin McKinley's Imaginary Lands, 1985.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

"Excellent Calibre" - love it.

[sovay]

I wonder who was the first person to suggest that the story of the sword in the stone might be an allegory about the discovery of iron smelting?

In academia? I don't think I've ever heard that. I've seen the connection turn up in fiction—Jane Yolen's "Evian Steel" (1985), Tanith Lee's "Into Gold" (1986)—but only very recently, as Arthuriana goes.

[edit]

I assume it's not Rosemary Sutcliff? I haven't read Sword at Sunset (1963) etc. for years. It's definitely not Mary Stewart; her Caliburn is drawn from the altar of Mithras.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I have Sword at Sunset on my desk right now - about to start it!