This legend takes us back a few years… around 500 AD

A baby boy is born to King Uther and the Queen of England. During this time of history, England is not a safe place. Evil is strong in the land and many men have the desire to overthrow the king and become king themselves. For the safety of their son Arthur, the King and Queen secretly deliver the baby to Sir Ector. Ector has a son named Kay and takes care of Arthur as his own. As the boys grow, their interest begins peaking with tournaments and one day, Kay will begin competing.

Eventually the day comes when a servant of the king comes to Sir Ector’s house with news that King Uther is dead. The servant also delivers the message that all the king’s knights must go to the big stone on the road to London. So the next day Sir Ector travels to meet all the knights of England along with Merlin.

Merlin explains to all the knights that the King’s sword is in the stone and that only the king of England can take it out. One by one each of the knights attempt to pull the sword out of the stone, but all fail.

A few more years down the road and no one has pulled the sword out of the stone, and England has not had a king since Uther passed. Kay is now a knight competing in many tournaments and has realized that he has forgotten his sword as he prepares to compete in London. Arthur has been assigned to find a sword for Kay and starts searching and comes upon the sword that has been placed in the stone. Arthur pulls the sword out and rushes back to deliver the sword to Kay.

The tournament comes to a complete stop and everyone is in auh as they realize that the sword Aurthur has brought is the sword in the stone. Arthur is the new king of England!

Naturally there are those who doubt that this boy has actually pulled the sword out, so to eliminate all doubts, Merlin calls everyone to the stone and places the sword back in. Again, many attempt to pull the sword out with no success. Then Merlin asks Arthur to take the sword out of the stone. Arthur goes to the stone. He pulls the sword… and it comes out of the stone. The crowd erupts with Arthur being the new king of England.

We can only imagine the confusion with Arthur as he has grown up being a wart to Kay his whole childhood.

Many times we doubt the potential that is within us. All of us are destined and capable of becoming great and doing great things. Scouting, through Cub Scouts or ScoutsBSA, helps us grow and become good people. Such is the case with Arthur. He was in the humblest of situations, an heir to the throne working as a servant to a knight. Now… the closest thing that each of us have to a sword would be our pocket knives, which you should not try and wedge into a stone… But in reality, we can compare King Arthur’s sword to something else. The Scout Oath and Law. As we live the Oath and Law, we continue to become better scouts and better citizens of our own communities. Let us continue to grow physically, mentally, and morally for the time will shortly come when it’s our turn to prove ourselves worthy.