Dozmary Pool in Cornwall is one of the legendary resting places of king Arthur’s sword Excalibur.

It is into these soulful waters high on Bodmin Moor that the most trusted knight Sir Bedivere is believed by many to have cast the sword of his master and king.

For it could be here that 'the rippling washing in the reeds, and the wild water lapping on the crag' is how Tennyson described the scene. At the last Battle of Camlann or Camblan, Arthur killed Mordred, but was dealt a life-ending wound himself.

All of the king’s Knights of the Round Table die with him at the battle, save his long time friend and trusted companion, Sir Bedivere. Arthur, on his death bed, begs Sir Bedivere to take up his sword Excalibur and cast it into the Lake. In a state of fevered mind, Sir Bedivere takes the sword grudgingly from his master’s hand to the Lake.

Sir Bedivere throws the sword into the still waters of the lake, but before the sword touches the water, a mysterious hand and arm reach out to seize it in its flight. The knight watches as the arm slowly submerges into the rippling waters, and the king’s sword vanishes into the world of myth and mystery.

While still a youth, Arthur had received Excalibur from the water of a Lake, borne from the hand of a Lady of a Lake. And now, as the king lies dying, the sword returns to its place of birth, to its watery womb-like scabbard, and so the circle from life to death is complete.

Arthur is free of the cares of this weary world, and it is now his time to rest.

If his last battle had been fought at nearby Slaughter Bridge, two miles north of Camelford; then perhaps we can suppose that the wounded king was carried by barge across the waters to the Isle of Avalon, perhaps this was to Glastonbury or to the Isles of Scilly.

This fascinating story has many Christian and pagan elements intertwined.

The Christian significance attached to water as a medium through which we are born again in baptism, through which we suffer judgment, enjoy forgiveness with the washing away of sin, and then we are born to eternal life.

Even from pre-Roman times there is wide-spread archaeological evidence of swords being cast into lakes and rivers as sacred offerings, especially at the time of a notably man’s death. Priestesses or goddesses ruled over many watery places, where offerings were commonly made to them.

Dozmary Pool is well worth visiting. It is high on Bodmin Moor, about twelve miles north-east, just off the A30, south of Belventor (home of Jamaica Inn).

Several other locations also have claimants to being the legendry Lake.  Tennyson believed the real place was Loe Pool, south of Helston.

The monks of Glastonbury Abbey said that Pomparles Bridge, in Somerset, or the 'Pont Perilous' as they believed it was originally called.

Where is the true Lake of the legend today? Visit Dozmary Pool and see what you think?