Film
Although the film rights to T.H. White's novel of the same name had already been acquired by Disney in 1939, the classic was released more than twenty years later and was the last before Walt Disney's death in 1966. It is one of the very few films of the screenplay era to have human beings as protagonists instead of animals, but thanks to narrative expedients it manages to retain those characteristics that make it fully in the style of those years. An example of this is its episodic structure, individual sketches linked together by the thread given by Merlin the magician's magical lessons given to young Arthur, transformed each time into different animals to extend his point of view on the world. Far from wanting to recount the legendary exploits of King Arthur, the epic nature of the Arthurian cycle was totally set aside, preferring a much lighter narrative style, retracing the adolescent and formative years of the young protagonist.
L'arte
When it comes to the Middle Ages, a visit to the Abbey of San Galgano in Chiusdino, in the province of Siena, is a must, not only for the absolute beauty of Tuscany that the whole world envies us, but above all to experience a unique place where one can breathe in the history of the sword in the rock. The abbey is a place now in ruins, consisting only of the walls and without a roof. It does not even have a floor, replaced by beaten earth that becomes turf in spring. It was built between 1220 and 1268, a period when the Romanesque style in Italy was merging with the newly imported French Gothic. Its shape is in the shape of a Latin cross and the place where it stands is where St Galgano landed a century and a half before its construction. Its ruins, however, remained intact and restoration work began in the 1800s: the Abbey would not be rebuilt, but its remains were secured and today it is a surreal place: the ghost of the Italian Middle Ages. Concerts and theatre performances are held inside during the summer, and when the night is illuminated by lights, it becomes a magical place like few others in the world.
Climbing the hill thanks to paths perfect for trekking, we find the Hermitage of Montesiepi: a circular church erected immediately after the death of San Galgano and consecrated in 1185. This small building is at the centre of several legends, the first of which concerns the Holy Grail, which seems to be buried here. The shape of the Hermitage in fact resembles that of an inverted cup, and it seems that inside there is a stone that must be moved to access the unreachable dungeon where the most precious find for Christians all over the world is hidden. It goes without saying that no one has yet discovered the stone in question. The most famous peculiarity of the Hermitage concerns the sword in the stone, a miracle attributed to Saint Galgano. Legend has it that the Saint was carried by his horse to the top of Montesiepi, without Galgano being able to stop the animal. The Saint saw this as a sign and wanted to plant a cross on the top of the mountain, but having no wood to make one, he drove his sword into the ground so that the handle and hilt formed the crucifix. The sword immediately fused with the stone in a miraculous transmogrification and is still there, in a shrine in the middle of the Hermitage. Once someone, just like King Arthur, tried to pull out the sword with the result of breaking it near the hilt. From that moment on, it can no longer be touched.
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