Four Swords of Wayland

According to legend, the Great King and Emperor Charlemagne had four swords, each forged by Wayland the Smith. 

His own sword was called Joyeuse. He wielded it in battle against the Turk, and after his death it became the coronation sword of the Kings of France. After the Revolution it was moved to the Louvre museum, where it remains to this day.

A second sword, known as Durendal, Charlemagne gave to his most famous paladin Roland, who carried it at the battle of the Roncevaux Pass, where he died. With his last strength Roland cast Durendal away, rather than let it be captured by the Enemy, and there is to this day a sword protruding the living rock of a cliff-face in Rocamadour in south-western France. It can still be seen by visitors to the region, despite the local tourist board’s insistence that it is not original.

Also at the Battle of the Roncevaux Pass died Bishop Turpin of Rheims, another ally of Charlemagne, whose sword, though less well known than Durendal, was also forged by Wayland from the same steel. Its name was called Almace.

A fourth sword, also brother to Durendal, was given by Charlemagne to his former enemy Ogier the Dane, who thereafter became one of the Great King’s most loyal liegemen in the Turkish wars. Its name was Curtana, and it had long before been the sword of Sir Tristan of Lyonesse.

Ogier is the Danish equivalent of King Arthur, and according to one legend after his last battle he was taken to Avalon by Morgan le Fay. Also like Arthur, as well as like Frederick Barbarossa of Germany and Duke St Wenceslaus of Bohemia, he is thought to be not dead but sleeping under a mountain, waiting to return to his country’s aid in its darkest hour.

Ogier’s sword Curtana though was broken, much like Siegfried’s sword in The Nibelungenlied. It has since become one of the coronation swords of the Kings of England, where it is called the Sword of Mercy and is borne in the coronation ceremony as one of the three Swords of Justice. According to legend, it was broken by an angel when an attempt was made to use it to commit an unjust act. Some say that the sword that is used to this day was recreated for the coronation of Charles II. Others though maintain that the Swords of Justice were amongst the few royal relics that survived being melted down by Oliver Cromwell.