Clarent

A Ceremonial Sword, as featured in The Accolade by Edmund Leighton, c. 1901

Clarent, is another sword said to have been used by King Arthur but for different purposes than his usual sword, Excalibur. In the Middle English poem, Alliterative Morte Arthure, mention is made of Clarent, a ceremonial sword. This was a sword of peace that Arthur inherited from Uther, and that Arthur used in rituals such as crowning and knighting. However, Clarent is then reportedly stolen and later used by Mordred to deliver the fatal blow to Arthur. (This account of the Alliterative Morte Arthure is preserved in a single copy in the early fifteenth century Lincoln Thornton Manuscript.)

In Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d'Arthur, Excalibur is pulled from a stone. However, in other stories, Excalibur is given to Arthur by the Lady of the Lake after his sword breaks. The sword that breaks is perhaps Clarent, the sword pulled from an anvil in Robert de Boron’s Merlin, or pulled from a stone per later authors.