Sealed away by the maiden he loved, Merlin leaves one last warning: "The woman you trust most will steal your sword and scabbard." Armed with the "Excalibur" his kind sister sent him, young King Arthur rides into a duel to the death—only to find his opponent swinging the king's own true sword.
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The myth behind this episode
This part of the legend comes from Book IV of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur, which William Caxton printed in 1485. Merlin, King Arthur's adviser and prophet, falls hopelessly in love with Nimue. She is one of the Ladies of the Lake, a group of enchantresses, and she came to Arthur's court with King Pellinore. Merlin follows her everywhere. She stays pleasant with him, and meanwhile she learns from him everything she wants to know.
Before Merlin leaves, he gives Arthur two warnings. The first is that Merlin himself will soon be put into the earth alive. The second is that Arthur must guard his sword and its scabbard closely, because the woman he trusts most will steal them. Arthur asks Merlin to use his magic to escape this fate, and Merlin says it cannot be done. In Malory, a prophet can see the future but cannot change it.
Nimue makes Merlin swear never to put a spell on her. The two of them cross the sea to Benwick, where Merlin foretells that the young Lancelot will one day avenge a great wrong. Then they head toward Cornwall. The whole way, Merlin keeps pressing Nimue for her love. She grows tired of him and afraid of him, partly because Merlin was said to be the son of a devil. At last he shows her a wonder beneath a great enchanted stone set in a rock. She cleverly gets him to go underneath it, then makes sure none of his magic can free him, and she leaves. One chapter title says Merlin died there. A later chapter, though, has a knight hear him groaning under the stone. So it is unclear whether he is dead or only imprisoned.
Some time later, Arthur goes hunting with King Uriens and Sir Accolon of Gaul. Uriens is married to Arthur's sister Morgan le Fay. The three men ride so far ahead that they lose their companions, and their horses fall dead under them. Arthur kills the deer they were chasing beside a stretch of water. Then a small ship hung with silk drifts to the shore with no one aboard. When the men step on, night falls and torches suddenly blaze up all around. Twelve beautiful maidens greet Arthur by name, serve the men food and wine, and lead them to rich beds, where all three fall into a deep sleep.
They wake up far apart. Uriens is in Camelot, in bed beside Morgan. Arthur is in a dark prison full of starving knights. They are prisoners of Sir Damas, a cowardly lord who has taken his brave brother Sir Ontzlake's share of the land. Ontzlake has challenged him to single combat, but Damas will not fight himself, so he jails every knight who refuses to fight in his place. Arthur agrees to be Damas's champion on one condition: every prisoner must go free. Accolon wakes beside a deep well. A dwarf sent by Morgan brings him Excalibur and its scabbard and tells him to fight without mercy. Accolon then becomes the champion of Ontzlake, who is wounded and cannot fight. Neither fighter knows who the other is.
One of Morgan's maidens brings Arthur a sword and scabbard that look exactly like Excalibur, as a token of his sister's love. Both are fake, and the sword is brittle. In the duel, Arthur's blade will not cut, and every blow from Accolon draws Arthur's blood. Arthur realizes that his opponent is holding his own sword. His blade snaps, but he refuses to surrender: he would rather die with honor than live in shame. Nimue knows about Morgan's plot, and she arrives at the fight. With a spell, she makes Excalibur fall from Accolon's hand. Arthur grabs it and wins. When Accolon learns who his opponent was, he confesses the whole plot and dies of his wounds a few days later. Arthur forgives him and gives a fair judgment between Damas and Ontzlake.
Morgan's plan went further. She meant to kill Uriens in his sleep and make Accolon king. Their son, Sir Uwaine, grabs her hand just in time. He spares her only after she promises never to try again. When Morgan hears that Accolon is dead, she hides her grief. She steals the scabbard while Arthur sleeps and throws it into a lake. When Arthur chases her, she turns herself and her followers into stones and gets away.
The episode is built on painful ironies. Merlin can see the future but cannot save himself. Arthur's warning comes true through the person he trusted most, his own sister. Malory has Morgan say she hates Arthur because he is the most honored person of her family. In Book I, Merlin had told Arthur that the scabbard was worth more than the sword, because whoever wore it would lose no blood. That makes its loss a dark sign of what lies ahead for Arthur.
The story also reflects medieval ideas about oaths, honor, and judicial combat, in which a champion fought to settle someone else's dispute. Malory adapted much of his material from earlier French romances, and the enchantress's name changes from version to version: other versions of the legend call her Viviane or Vivien. Readers disagree about Nimue. Some see her as a betrayer, while others think she was defending herself from a man who would not leave her alone. In this same book, she also saves Arthur's life.
The manga follows Malory's main events, and it fills in details Malory leaves out. Malory says only that the men slept deeply. The look of the ship, the torches, the maidens, and the feast are the manga's own designs. Malory never explains how the three men ended up in three different places, so the manga shows it as Morgan's sorcery. Malory also never shows when Arthur's real sword passed to Morgan. Accolon only says he has had it for about a year. Any scene showing that handover is the manga's invention.
The moment Merlin is sealed away, the look of the rock and stone, and Nimue's expressions and feelings are also interpretation. Malory tells us only that she feared Merlin and wanted to be free of him. The manga shortens the visit to Benwick and skips Chapters 2–5, which cover a war with five invading kings. It presents Merlin as sealed away instead of clearly dead. The episode stops at the shocking moment when Arthur faces his own true sword in an enemy's hand.
The source is Caxton's 1485 edition of Le Morte Darthur, Book IV, Chapter 1 and Chapters 6–15. An earlier manuscript of Malory's work, the Winchester Manuscript, was rediscovered in 1934 and divides the text differently. Many public-domain editions of the Caxton text are freely available.
If you'd like to see the story before tackling Malory's long chapters, KING ARTHUR: Twilight of the Round Table on Manga Portal tells it episode by episode. Every episode is free to read, and you don't need an account. Episode 5 ends right as the duel turns deadly, so the next chapter of Morgan's betrayal is just a click away.
In Malory's Le Morte Darthur, Merlin falls in love with Nimue, one of the Ladies of the Lake, and teaches her his magic. She lures him under a great enchanted stone in Cornwall and traps him there with no way out. One chapter title says he died, but a later passage has him groaning under the stone.
Malory says Merlin kept pressing her for her love, and she grew tired of him and afraid of him because he was said to be a devil's son. She wanted to be free of him. Readers still disagree about whether she was a betrayer or was defending herself.
Morgan le Fay, Arthur's sister, gave the real Excalibur and its scabbard to her lover Accolon and sent Arthur a fake. After Accolon was defeated, she stole the scabbard from the sleeping Arthur and threw it into a lake.
In Book I of Le Morte Darthur, Merlin tells Arthur that whoever wears the scabbard will lose no blood, which makes it worth more than the sword. Losing it leaves Arthur without that protection.
Arthur won the duel after Nimue's magic made Excalibur fall from Accolon's hand. Accolon confessed Morgan's plot, Arthur forgave him, and Accolon died of his wounds a few days later.
