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Excalibur or Caliburn is the legendary sword of King Arthur, sometimes attributed with magical powers or associated with the rightful sovereignty of Great Britain. Sometimes Excalibur and the Sword in the Stone (the proof of Arthur's lineage) are said to be the same weapon, but in most versions they are considered separate. The sword was associated with the Arthurian legend very early. In Welsh, the sword is called Caledfwlch; in Cornish, the sword is called Calesvol; in Breton, the sword is called Kaledvoulc'h; in Latin, the sword is called Caliburnus. ==Forms and etymologies== The name ''Excalibur'' ultimately comes from the ancestor of Welsh ''Caledfwlch'' (and Breton ''Kaledvoulc'h'', Middle Cornish ''Calesvol'') which is a compound of ' "hard" and ' "breach, cleft".〔R. Bromwich and D. Simon Evans, ''Culhwch and Olwen. An Edition and Study of the Oldest Arthurian Tale'' (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1992), pp. 64-65.〕 Caledfwlch appears in several early Welsh works, including the poem ''Preiddeu Annwfn'' (though it is not directly named - but only alluded to - here) and the prose tale ''Culhwch and Olwen'', a work associated with the ''Mabinogion'' and written perhaps around 1100. The name was later used in Welsh adaptations of foreign material such as the ''Brut''s (chronicles), which were based on Geoffrey of Monmouth. It is often considered to be related to the phonetically similar ''Caladbolg'', a sword borne by several figures from Irish mythology, although a borrowing of ''Caledfwlch'' from Irish ''Caladbolg'' has been considered unlikely by Rachel Bromwich and D. Simon Evans. They suggest instead that both names "may have similarly arisen at a very early date as generic names for a sword"; this sword then became exclusively the property of Arthur in the British tradition.〔〔T. Green, ''Concepts of Arthur'' (Stroud: Tempus, 2007), p. 156.〕 Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his Historia Regum Britanniae (c. 1136), Latinised the name of Arthur's sword as ''Caliburnus'' (potentially influenced by the Medieval Latin spelling ''calibs'' of Classical Latin ''chalybs'', from Greek ''chályps'' () "steel") and states that it was forged in the Isle of Avalon. Most Celticists consider Geoffrey's ''Caliburnus'' to be derivative of a lost Old Welsh text in which ''bwlch'' had not yet been lenited to ''fwlch''.〔P. K. Ford, "On the Significance of some Arthurian Names in Welsh" in ''Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies'' 30 (1983), pp. 268-73 at p. 271.〕〔James MacKillop, ''Dictionary of Celtic Mythology'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 64-65, 174.〕〔 In Old French sources this then became ''Escalibor'', ''Excalibor'' and finally the familiar ''Excalibur''. Geoffrey Gaimar, in his Old French ''L'Estoire des Engles'' (1134-1140), mentions Arthur and his sword: "this Constantine was the nephew of Arthur, who had the sword Caliburc" ("''Cil Costentin li niès Artur, Ki out l'espée Caliburc''").〔Hardy, T.D. and Martin, C. T. (eds./trans.), Gaimar, Geoffrey. ''L'Estoire des Engles'', Eyre and Spottiswoode, London, 1889, p. 2.〕〔Wright, T. (ed.); Gaimar, Geoffrey. ''Gaimar, Havelok et Herward'', Caxton Society, London, 1850, p. 2〕 In Wace's ''Roman de Brut'' (c. 1150-1155), an Old French translation and versification of Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''Historia Regum Britanniae'', the sword is called ''Calabrum'', ''Callibourc'', ''Chalabrun'', and ''Calabrun'' (with alternate spellings such as ''Chalabrum'', ''Calibore'', ''Callibor'', ''Caliborne'', ''Calliborc'', and ''Escaliborc'', found in various manuscripts of the ''Brut'').〔De Lincy, Roux (ed.), Wace, ''Roman de Brut'', v. II, Edouard Frère, Rouen, 1838, pp. 51, 88, 213, 215.〕 In Chrétien de Troyes' late 12th century Old French ''Perceval'', Gawain carries the sword ''Escalibor'' and it is stated, "for at his belt hung Excalibor, the finest sword that there was, which sliced through iron as through wood"〔Bryant, Nigel (trans., ed.). ''Perceval: The Story of the Grail'', DS Brewer, 2006, p. 69.〕 (''"Qu'il avoit cainte Escalibor, la meillor espee qui fust, qu'ele trenche fer come fust"''〔Roach, William. ''Chrétien De Troyes: Le Roman De Perceval ou Le Conte Du Graal'', Librairie Droz, 1959, p. 173.〕). This statement was probably picked up by the author of the ''Estoire Merlin'', or Vulgate Merlin, where the author (who was fond of fanciful folk etymologies) asserts that Escalibor "is a Hebrew name which means in French 'cuts iron, steel, and wood'"〔Loomis, R. S. ''Arthurian Tradition and Chrétien de Troyes'', Columbia, 1949, p. 424.〕 ("''c'est non Ebrieu qui dist en franchois trenche fer & achier et fust''"; note that the word for "steel" here, achier, also means "blade" or "sword" and comes from medieval Latin ''aciarium'', a derivative of ''acies'' "sharp", so there is no direct connection with Latin ''chalybs'' in this etymology). It is from this fanciful etymological musing that Thomas Malory got the notion that Excalibur meant "cut steel"〔Vinaver, Eugene (ed.) ''The works of Sir Thomas Malory'', Volume 3. Clarendon, 1990, p. 1301.〕 ("'the name of it,' said the lady, 'is Excalibur, that is as moche to say, as Cut stele'"). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Excalibur」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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