Arthurian & Chivalric
Excalibur
Excalibur
Cuts through enemy armor, and whoever wears its scabbard does not bleed.
WeaponFirst recorded 1136
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Photograph: A black-and-white photograph of a late fifteenth-century Spanish sword in its scabbard, standing vertically, with a densely decorated hilt and long scabbard.
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657 × 3,000 PX657×3000
ArchiveArthurian & Chivalric · Weapon
Tizona
Tizona
Enemies trembled at the mere sight of its blade.
- Owner
- El Cid (Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar)
- Maker
- Unknown
- First record
- The Poem of the Cid1200
- Gallery
- Arthurian & Chivalric
Notes on the photograph 3
Story
In The Poem of the Cid, the oldest epic in Spanish literature, El Cid pursues and defeats the Moroccan king Búcar, who has marched on Valencia, and takes his sword Tizona.
El Cid later gave this sword and Colada to his two sons-in-law. But when they disgraced him by abandoning his daughters in a forest, he recovered both swords in a trial before the king and restored his honor by duel.
The Museum of Burgos holds a sword long handed down as El Cid's Tizona. Part of its blade has been analyzed as eleventh-century work from Islamic Spain.
The object in the photo
The photograph shows Sword with Scabbard(Spanish, late 15th century), a real museum object that evokes the legendary artifact.
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VesselFirst recorded 1180
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