All Hail the New Ruler of England: Young Girl Finds Sword in Lake From King Arthur Legend

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Hear that? That’s the sound of a new ruler of England being chosen in traditional Arthurian-era fashion: by finding a sword in a lake.

Young Matilda Jones was out on a walk with her father out near Dozmary Pool in Cornwall, which is, supposed to be the very same body of water where the legendary King Arthur left Excalibur after he was fatally wounded after a battle. The Lady of the Lake took the sword back, and it has remained there ever since, according to the legend. But that legend may need an update, as Jones ended up spotting a sword as she was wading around in the lake. Paul, her father, recounted the discovery, saying, “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.”

Her father also believes that the sword can’t be more than 30 years old or so, as he’s pretty sure it’s a film prop. Still, it’s not every day your young lady goes wading in a lake and finds a longsword nearly as tall as she is. That’s something worth celebrating, and really, I think we’re all just happy about the idea of a young girl ruling an entire kingdom. We are here for that.

Of course, none of the publications who reported on the story managed to get a quote from this new ruler of England, which is kind of a bummer. Nevertheless, the internet reacted in the way that it does when little girls manage to find incredible things: they tweeted their admiration and approval.

I’m for rebooting some leadership and all that. If only we here in the states had some kind of legend to turn to, something we could use as an excuse to just completely refresh this cruel mockery of a government we have now.

Sigh.

(via Pajiba, image: EMI Films)

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Jessica Lachenal
Jessica Lachenal is a writer who doesn’t talk about herself a lot, so she isn’t quite sure how biographical info panels should work. But here we go anyway. She's the Weekend Editor for The Mary Sue, a Contributing Writer for The Bold Italic (thebolditalic.com), and a Staff Writer for Spinning Platters (spinningplatters.com). She's also been featured in Model View Culture and Frontiers LA magazine, and on Autostraddle. She hopes this has been as awkward for you as it has been for her.