Like, okay, take Morgan Le Fay, otherwise known as Morgana. I mean, sure, we all know about King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, Queen Guinevere and her tryst with Arthur's most trusted knight Lancelot, the sword Excalibur, the quest for the Holy Grail, the wizard Merlin, the evil sorceress Morgan Le Fay and her wicked son Mordred - but here's the thing, so much of that? Contradictions all over the place. So one of the things I find most fascinating about Arthurian legend is how there are so few constants, from telling to telling. This act later enables the death of Arthur, deprived of magical protection, many years later in his final battle. In the later romance tradition, including Le Morte d'Arthur, the scabbard is stolen from Arthur by his half-sister Morgan le Fay in revenge for the death of her beloved Accolon during the Fake Excalibur plot and thrown into a lake, never to be found again.
For this reason, Merlin chides Arthur for preferring the sword over the scabbard, saying that the latter was the greater treasure. In some tellings, Excalibur's scabbard was also said to have powers of its own, as any wounds received while wearing the scabbard would not bleed at all, thus preventing the death of the wearer. Malory records both versions of the legend in his Le Morte d'Arthur, naming both swords as Excalibur. However, in the Post-Vulgate Cycle and consequently Malory, early in his reign Arthur breaks the Sword from the Stone while in combat against King Pellinore, and then is given Excalibur by a Lady of the Lake in exchange for a later boon for her (some time later, she arrives at Arthur's court to demand the head of Balin).
This tale becomes attached to Bedivere instead of Griflet in Malory and the English tradition. In the Vulgate Mort Artu, when Arthur is at the brink of death he orders Griflet to throw the sword into the enchanted lake after two failed attempts (as he felt such a great sword should not be thrown away), Griflet finally complies with the wounded king's request and a hand emerges from the lake to catch it.
The identity of this sword as Excalibur is made explicit in the Prose Merlin, part of the Lancelot-Grail cycle of French romances (the Vulgate Cycle).
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