A Tale of Kings, Swords, and Understanding Your Value

Whether we realise it or not, King Arthur and the vast mythos that surrounds Arthurian legend have been intricately woven into our culture. From the media we consumed as children, such as the Harry Potter series or the aptly titled Disney classic The Sword in the Stone, it’s almost certain that you have come across King Arthur at some point in your life. 

Personally, Arthurian legend has come to deeply resonate with me with its wide-spanning accounts of ancient romance and knights and it continues to do so.

Though the tale of King Arthur may be an old fable, I saw myself becoming increasingly entangled in the web of stories and characters ranging from scorned sorceresses to legendary battles. I found myself asking what it was about these stories that drew me in time and time again. It is an old wives’ tale that we continue to talk about and study today. It is a story so influential that it constitutes several historical landmarks around the globe. So, that begs the question, why should you care? 

For me to begin answering this question, I had to strip everything I knew down to the basics. I had to seek out the core of the hundreds of epic poems and ancient manuscripts that litter the Arthurian canon in order to focus on one essential fact: King Arthur himself. 

You may find yourself asking what all of this is even regarding, which is understandable. At its barest, the story begins with an unremarkable boy named Arthur and a sword in a stone. The story proclaims that the greatest king their kingdom will ever see is the one who can dislodge the sword from the stone. Though many knights have come from faraway lands to attempt to pry the sword out, it is Arthur who manages to do it, seemingly by accident. There are many facets to this one story, let alone the sea of other stories that connect to it. But the one indisputable aspect that remains is the lesson that extraordinary destinies can come upon those who least expect it. When I look back, I feel this is the message that drew me in. 

When you’re a kid, you feel like everything in the world is going on without you. You don’t truly understand anything except that one day you’re going to have to be an adult. Even though the lens through which a child sees the world should be one of magic and possibility, there is still a daunting feeling. The feeling of being one person in a world of many people. For me, the story of Arthur was a story about a kid who could have been anyone, even me. As someone who struggled a lot with accepting myself and who compared myself to others constantly, this story always brought me a sense of peace. It represents the sheer scope of what the world can offer and that helped me greatly to understand that I don’t have to be the best or the most popular in order to be extraordinary. 

From the moment my seven-year-old-self picked up T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, I was unshakably attached to this boy who, just like me, had regular parents, went to school, and was picked on by older kids. Except he wasn’t just a boy, he would become the greatest king the land had ever known. And that was a notion that was incredibly special to me. Arthur helped me, and continues to help me, navigate the world and find my identity. He acts as a reminder that although I’m not a legendary king, I am not lesser because I am just one in eight billion people. 

Having said that, the greater lesson that I have taken from Arthur is that we are all remarkable and exceptional in our own way.

I realise that it sounds cheesy and that we’ve been hearing the same message since we were old enough to comprehend it, but it really is true. Just because you aren’t a prodigy or you aren’t the most popular at school or work, it does not mean that you are in any way insignificant. 

I think that this story is something that historians and classicists come back to so often because of how spirited and hopeful it is. It is a valuable insight into what it means to find your purpose after feeling inconsequential in the world for such a long time. We all have our sword in the stone, and we are all our own Arthur. It’s something that we should always celebrate and cherish.