Swords and Wizards

I've always had an affinity for stories concerning swords and wizards.

Today I watched for the nth time (and for the first time again in a long time) what might've been the very first sword/wizard story I ever loved in my life. Disney's "The Sword in the Stone". I found it accidentally while looking for something else to Tivo. There are a lot of movies that I loved as a kid, and found to be painfully boring as a grown person. This movie however, reminded me today how truly classical it still is (to me at least). The movie is set in the medieval times, a while before the advent of Camelot and the knights of the round table, and we find King Arthur as a scrawny looking squire-wannabe, who is sadly nicknamed 'Wart'. He encounters Merlin, who appoints himself as Wart's teacher, knowing the boy is destined to be truly great. The movie starts off with Merlin complaining about the lack of electricity and plumbing in the dark ages, he stumbles all over himself and his beard while trying to get a pail of water from a well, a scene which still sent me into fits of laughter. Archimedes, the well-schooled owl, is still so lovable, however disagreeable he might tend to be. And of course little Arthur is just so cute. As Wart is turned into several different kinds of animals, I'm reminded of other Disney works, such as Bambi when he's turned into a squirrel and chased around a tree by a female version of himself, and of Little Mermaid when he turns into a fish and tricks a barracuda into running its snout through a chain (not to mention his old-school Nemo-ish appearance). Beauty and the Beast also comes into mind as Merlin orders his chair to come to him and his sugarbowl to conduct itself in a proper manner. All the teachings of course lead to Wart becoming the young King Arthur when he is finally able to pull the sword out of the stone. The movie is a LOT of fun. And I'm saying this as myself, right now, in this day and age :).

Over the years I've come across different stories of swords and wizards that I loved too. It so happens that my favorite books are from the series 'Sword of Truth' by Terry Goodkind, which combines wizard and swordfighter into one character who just swept me off my feet (well right until book 6, after which the series dwindles off into nothingness.. hehehe for whoever wants to read this I suggest you stop after book 6). Another one of my all-time favorites is the book 'The Eyes of the Dragon'. The wizard there is evil though, and the swordfighting isn't such a big deal. The book is a little dark, of course that would be expected since Stephen King is the author. But the storyline is fantastic!

Sometimes I wish I could've lived in such exciting times. Of course, that would be quite impossible since those were FICTIONAL periods in history. Anyway, I don't think I'd have the courage to face an evil all-powerful wizard anyway. I should just leave all the dragons and magic where they belong: in my imagination.