Girl, 7, finds 4ft sword in same lake where King Arthur was said to have hurled Excalibur -- (edited)
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A seven-year-old girl stumbled across a 4ft sword in the same lake where King Arthur's Excalibur was said to have been thrown.
Matilda Jones was paddling waist-deep in Dozmary Pool in Bodmin Moor, Cornwall, when she came across the blade while on a family holiday.
The lake is said to be the spot where legendary medieval leader King Arthur is said to have returned Excalibur after being fatally wounded in the Battle of Camlann.
Ironically, dad Paul Jones, 51, had recounted the famous folklore of King Arthur to Matilda and her four-year-old sister Lois just before the recovery.
Paul, of Doncaster, south Yorks., said: "It was a blistering hot day and Matilda asked if we could go for a paddle.
"She was only waist deep when she said she could see a sword.
"I told her not to be silly and it was probably a bit of fencing, but when I looked down I realised it was a sword. It was just there laying flat on the bottom of the lake
"The sword is 4ft long - exactly Matilda's height."
Legend has it that King Arthur first received Excalibur from the Lady of Lake in Dozmary Pool after rowing out to receive it.
After being mortally wounded in the Battle of Camlann he asked to be taken there so he could return the sword to her.
After three attempts, his loyal follower Bedivere cast it into the water and the Lady of the Lake's arm rose to receive it.
The pool, in the civil parish of Altarnun on Bodmin Moor, was said to be bottomless until droughts in 1859 and 1976 dried it out completely and revealed it is, in fact, and shallow pond.
And Matilda's dad reckons the sword is probably only around 30 years old.
"I don't think it's particularly old," he said. "It's probably an old film prop."
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