Police are investigating after the suspected theft of a mythical sword that was embedded in a cliff in the hill-top village of Rocamadour, south-central France.
Durandal was the famed sword of Roland, the protagonist of La Chanson de Roland, an epic poem and the oldest surviving major work of French literature.
The sword was embedded in a cliff face in Rocamadour (Lot) until it went missing on Saturday, June 22.
…
However, the sword, a popular sight among visitors to the Unesco World Heritage town, was the “umpteenth copy” of the original, Father Florent Millet, rector of the sanctuary of Rocamadour, told ActuLot, confirming there was no historical value to the replica.
I saw this when I was a nipper and was very impressed. Not sure anyone told me it was a fake.
…I inherited this ship from the previous Dread Pirate Roberts, just as you will inherit it from me. The man I inherited it from was not the real Dread Pirate Roberts, either. His name was Cummerbund. The real Roberts has been retired fifteen years and living like a king in Patagonia.