Sure, the story of King Arthur drawing Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake is pretty cool. But have you heard about the eight-year-old girl who pulled a sword that’s at least 1,000 years old out of a Swedish lake?
The Swedish news site The Local reports that Saga Vanecek was playing in Vidöstern Lake this summer when she stepped on something that felt kind of like a stick.
“I picked it up and was going to drop it back in the water, but it had a handle, and I saw that it was a little bit pointy at the end and all rusty,” she told The Local. “I held it up in the air and I said ‘Daddy, I found a sword!’ When he saw that it bent and was rusty, he came running up and took it.”
The Jönköpings Läns Museum estimates that the sword is at least 1,000 years old, and may even date to the 5th or 6th century A.D. If so, this would mean the sword pre-dates the Viking era by a few hundred years.