It is southern France’s answer to Excalibur, the mythical sword that
King Arthur legendarily pulled from a rock to obtain the
British throne.
However, Rocamadour has no idea who managed to wrench its famed Durandal sword from the stone in which it had been embedded for centuries, particularly because it was 10 metres off the ground.
All the town knows is that one of its main tourist attractions has vanished. It is presumed stolen and an investigation has been launched.
Durandal was the sword of Roland, a legendary paladin (knight) and officer of
Charlemagne in French epic literature. According to the legend, Durandal was indestructible, and the sharpest sword in all existence, capable of cutting through giant boulders with a single strike.
Its magical qualities are recounted in the 11th-century epic poem The Song of Roland, the oldest surviving major work of French literature. The single existing manuscript of the Song of Roland in Old French is held at the
Bodleian Library in Oxford.
According to local folklore in Rocamadour, in the Lot department of France, Durendal was embedded in a cliff wall in the town. It was a major tourist site in a gorge above a tributary of the River Dordogne whose sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin Mary has attracted pilgrims for centuries from many countries, among them kings, bishops and nobles.
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