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Excalibur

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"Perceval, take the sword. Find a pool of calm water....cast the sword into it. Do as I command. One day, a new King will come, and the Sword will rise again."
— King Arthur, John Boorman's Excalibur

Excalibur: the legendary sword of King Arthur and the go-to name when you need a Cool Sword. Given its status as a Public Domain Artifact, there are quite a few references to it in various media, not to mention the actual Arthurian literature.

The name Excalibur is derived from from the original Welsh Caledfwlch or Caledvwlch,note  cognate with the Caladbolg of Irish myth. This was rendered as Caliburnus in Latin. Over the centuries the spelling further developed into Escalibor and other variations, finally ending up as Excalibur. Some versions say that Arthur pulled Excalibur from a stone (and anvil on top of the stone) to prove his right to be king. Other versions say that the sword from the stone was not Excalibur, but a different sword, and Arthur instead was given Excalibur by The Lady of the Lake.

Modern authors have to usually pick one of these old versions and stick with it. (Although Excalibur found a way to combine the stories). Sometimes modern authors try to distinguish the swords by giving each one a different version of the name "Excalibur", like calling one of them "Caliburn" or "Collbrande" instead.

There are also a few obscure medieval stories where Arthur in fact has another named sword, or a couple of other named swords, besides Excalibur and so perhaps gives away or lends Excalibur to one of his knights, such as Gawain or Lancelot. Sometimes modern authors use one of these other named swords to distinguish the sword-in-the-stone from the sword-given-by-the-Lady-of-the-Lake.

To avoid confusion when adding examples, please refer to the following pages:

Other tropes frequently associated with Excalibur:

Examples of the sword itself in media:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime and Manga 
  • Code Geass: The name is taken for a Humongous Mecha sword used by the head of the Knights of the Round.
  • Digimon Adventure: Although definitely not the actual sword, HolyAngemon and Seraphimon's Laser Blade Below the Shoulder is called Excalibur.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam AGE: In the Mobile Suit Variations, there's a unit called "Legendary Mobile Suit 'The Gundam'", which was designed off of a painting of the AGE-1. The designers mistook the AGE-1's beam saber handle and gave it a massive sword called Excalibur.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny: Excalibur is the name of a Humongous Mecha's twin beam sword used by the initial main hero.
  • Saint Seiya:
    • The Gold Saints Capricorn Shura has Excalibur in his arms and legs. In the anime, it was said that in mythical times, Athena granted the legendary sword Excalibur only to a Saint who proved his undying loyalty towards the goddess. This technique is a very sharp blast, composed of extreme cosmo concentration released by his arms and legs movements. Since it is quickly released, it can be used multiple times.
    • Shura passes his power to Shiryu's arm before dying. However, in order to use it, the Bronze Saint would have to burn his cosmos to a Gold Saint's level and raise it to the limit.
  • Soul Eater: Excalibur is one of the series' living weapons, and also a self-aggrandizing lout that most others can't stand. On top of this, he is also a Great Old One, specifically the one associated with the Madness of Rage, embodied in his tendency to drive everyone around him nuts due to how annoying he is, and might even be said to be the reason behind everything in the plot — his very existence inspired Arachne to try and create her own kind of Living Weapon.
  • Witchblade: The Witchblade claims to be Excalibur, but the actual sword is introduced much later in the series as a male counterpart to the blade.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!: Excalibur shows up an Equip Card that doubles ATK. Over a decade later, it's referenced again in Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL with a monster called "Heroic Champion — Excalibur", who can double his own ATK.

    Comic Books 
  • Camelot 3000: King Arthur must retrieve Excalibur from the lake, which is now the cooling pond for a nuclear power station.
  • The Dandy: In the strip "The Jocks and the Geordies", the Geordies once decided to search for Excalibur in hopes that with it, they could rally all the great Geordie hard men and batter the hell out of the Jocks. They failed dismally in this hunt, so instead they faked up an Excalibur from tin foil, which did the job just fine.
  • Witchblade: Excalibur makes a short appearance as the supposedly male counterpart to the titular entity, but is really just a fragment that soon rejoins the main body of the Witchblade.
  • Fables: Excalibur and the stone from which it was retrieved do make an appearance in the main series and the spin-off Jack Of Fables, though... the sword is easily recognizable, the stone, however, goes through a change or two.
  • Hellboy: As the last living descendent of King Arthur, the titular character is offered Excalibur so that he can raise an army to fight the Queen of Blood (a.k.a. Nimue).
  • The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Orlando claims that his sword is Excalibur, having kept it for himself after Arthur died, although nobody believes him. He's telling the truth.
  • Legion of Super-Heroes:
  • Mage: The Hero Discovered: Kevin Matchstick gains the ability to wield the magical baseball bat Excalibur.
  • Marvel Universe:
    • Captain Britain and MI13: The wielder of the sword is Dr. Faiza Hussain, a doctor of the Muslim faith with the strange mutant ability to dissect anyone non-magical to heal them.
    • Excalibur is about several UK-based teams of mutants. In New Excalibur, the characters come in contact with the real deal when they travel back to Arthurian times.
  • De Rode Ridder: Excalibur appears in the story arcs where he is a knight of the round table. Usually it is wielded by King Arthur himself, but after the king's death Johan has wielded it a number of times as well.
  • Seven Soldiers: The Shining Knight wields the sword Caliburn Ex Calibur.
  • Witch Doctor: Vincent Morrow wields this weapon, and is absolutely certain that pulling it out of the stone makes him The Chosen One.
    Vincent Morrow: (gesturing towards sword) This means I'm more important than you. The universe says so.

    Fan Works 
  • The Harry Potter/Merlin (2008) crossover fic “Ancient Relics” includes the discovery that Voldemort has released Morgana from the Crystal Cave and seeks to make them both immortal with the Cup of Life, requiring Merlin to retrieve Excalibur from Avalon on the subsequent Halloween when the boundary between life and death is at its weakest (he can’t simply create an equivalent sword forged in a dragon’s breath as the available dragons won’t do that on a regular basis). Even hearing the sword’s name leaves Harry feeling like he’s in a fantasy book he read before Hogwarts, and the entire Order of the Phoenix are notably impressed when Merlin presents them with the sword (Ron is particularly amused at the irony of them using a sword forged by a muggle named Tom to kill Voldemort given his hatred of his birth name).
  • Child of the Storm keeps the Dresden Files explanation for Excalibur, and Loki notes that the Sword in the Stone was actually the first of two swords to carry the name (legends being what they are); the second was Amoracchius, given to him by the Lady of the Lake. It also combines this with the Merlin (2008) backstory as well, with the Excalibur there being the first of the two.
  • Diaries of a Madman: Nav's Infinity +1 Sword turns out to be Excalibur.
  • Jericho (MLP): Although it's never once actually described, the sword that Jericho carries is suggested to be this. When Snechta, the High Priestess of the Cult of Chêngrêla, sees the sword, she goes wide-eyed and asks the sword is Caledfwlch, the blade of this world's King Arthur, Aloysius der Lichtbringer. Jericho shrugs and says that, in the Reich whence he comes, they called the sword Kaledfulch, but suggests that the two swords are "likely the same thing". It should also be noted that Jericho carries a pair of ammo-less revolvers, which, he notes, were given to him by a lady in a lake. The particular story almost exactly resembles the Lady in the Lake who gave King Arthur Excalibur.
  • Star Wars: Galactic Folklore and Mythology: A legendary Ryn king, said to have been the first ruler of their lost homeworld, owned a magic sword called Clurabexi — an anagram of Excalibur — that had been made by the gods, which was his greatest strength but eventually proved his doom.
  • Terminal Justice: Harry is cruising around in a submarine he'd appropriated when the Lady of the Lake appears and hands him Caledfwich, which Sir Justin later explains is a replacement for Excalibur after it was broken in battle.

    Films — Animated 
  • Puss in Boots: The Last Wish: Jack Horner who likes to collect magical artifacts has Excalibur, but since Jack is definitely not worthy to pull the sword from the stone, he instead just ripped the stone from the ground and wields it like a club.
  • Quest for Camelot: Excalibur is lost and becomes the MacGuffin as the heroes quest to find it and save the kingdom. Sir Ruber, the Big Bad, seeks the sword so he can magically bind himself to it and become invincible.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Hellboy (2019): Excalibur is the only weapon capable of actually harming Nimue, the Blood Queen.
  • King Arthur (2004): Excalibur/the Sword in the Stone is retrieved by young Arthur from his father's grave.
  • King Arthur: Legend of the Sword combines the two well known stories about how Arthur got the weapon, in addition to making it a sword with tremendous powers such as causing shockwaves. Arthur does retrieve it from a rock◊, proving he is the legitimate heir to the throne, then throws it into a lake later on out of fear of not controlling its powers. Then Arthur stumbles into a mud pool, the Lady of the Lake drags him into an abyss, gives it back to him◊, and he has a vision of a Bad Future dominated by Vortigern, which restores his confidence and allows him to finally harness the sword's powers.
  • The Last Legion presents Excalibur as a sword first wielded by Julius Caesar which is taken from Rome to Britain by its last emperor, Romulus Augustus. At the end of the film, Romulus (strongly implied to be Uther Pendragon) drives the sword into a stone. The last shot of the film shows the sword in the Present Day, still in the stone and with the original Latin inscription on it covered by moss, save for the letters which spell out 'Excalibur'.
  • The Librarian: Excalibur appears in the Library. It's sentient and capable of flying around on its own, and is fond of sparring with the protagonist Flynn.
  • Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Excalibur is identified properly as the sword bestowed upon Arthur by the Lady in the Lake, but serves no actual plot purpose.

    Literature 
  • "Excalibolg" from Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan needlessly combines this with Bland-Name Product. The second half of the name likely comes from Gae Bolg from Celtic myth, which is a spear, not a sword. Even more inexplicably, Excalibolg is a spiky club, not a sword.
  • Camulod Chronicles: In The Skystone, the ironsmith Publius Varrus at one point smelts some ore from a meteor that landed in a lake near his home, and forges it into a statue of a woman which he calls "The Lady of the Lake". He later melts down the statue and reforges the metal into the sword Excalibur.
  • The Dark Tower: Roland, a descendant of King Arthur, wields guns forged from the blade and hilt of Excalibur.
  • The Drawing of the Dark: Duffy, a 16th century mercenary, learns that he is the reincarnation of King Arthur, and is offered Caliburn. He declines to take it, pointing out that its archaic design is not well suited to modern (16th c.) warfare.
  • The Dresden Files: It's heavily implied — and eventually confirmed in Ghost Story — that Michael Carpenter's sword Amoracchius, which translates to the "Sword of Love" and contains one of the Nails of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ in its hilt, is Excalibur. It is one of the strongest weapons mortals have against evil Supernatural forces. Michael Carpenter even mentions that, in the past, the original Merlin was one of its custodians looking for the next proper wielder of it. Harry Dresden is chosen as its custodian after Michael retires. The first temporary wielder of the blade is a monster mother seeking to save her child from even worse creatures. Because she is acting out of love and swears to hurt no innocent people, she is able to not only touch Excalibur, but she uses it to cut off the arm of an elder monster.
  • High School D×D: There were two holy swords originally wielded by King Arthur:
    • The seven Excaliburs are fragments of the original Excalibur, each reforged into a new blade that possesses one of the Combo Platter Powers of the original: Excalibur Blessing, Excalibur Destruction, Excalibur Mimic, Excalibur Nightmare, Excalibur Rapidly, Excalibur Ruler and Excalibur Transparency. After the fall of Camelot, the strongest fragment (Ruler) remained with Arthur's descendants while the rest were eventually distributed between the Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican churches. Some of these were used by an unethical archbishop as part of the "Holy Sword Project", an attempt to create Child Soldiers capable of wielding them and similar weapons. The fragments are gradually recombined over the course of the series, with their incomplete form being used at one point as a Power Limiter for the Durandal.
    • Caliburn/Collbrande, identified as the Sword in the Stone and "the ultimate Holy Sword", remains with Arthur's descendants. In addition to its immense holy aura, it is a Dimensional Cutter which can strike from impossible directions and serves as its wielder's main means of transportation.
  • Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere features the Excalibur, but is represented as two swords: one called the "Excalibur Caliburn" and the other the "Excalibur Collbrande" ("Collbrande" being a variant on the spelling of the mythological Caliburn).
  • Knight Life Series: Excalibur's origin and nature turn out a bit more ... complicated than usual. The sword itself has no magic; the horn of the Unicorn King, concealed in the hilt, is a different story.
  • The Lost Years of Merlin: Merlin finds a magic sword and is told that he'll one day help a great king pull it from a stone. Oddly, "Excalibur" is never named because Merlin doesn't want people to know its true name.
  • The Merlin Trilogy: It's named Caliburn and it is the sword of Maximus/Macsen Wledig, a Roman general who made an unsuccessful bid for the Imperial crown. It was brought back from Rome by his men after his death and hidden in a stone temple. The common legend in this story is that it was forged by the legendary smith Weland, before fading away with the rest of the old gods. Much of the second novel, The Hollow Hills, revolves around Merlin attempting to locate it to secure Arthur's accession, and Arthur's drawing it in the sight of all men.
  • Le Morte d'Arthur as the definitive version of the Arthurian legend features his great sword. It features the story of Arthur being given Excalibur by The Lady of the Lake along with its scabbard. Oddly Arthur is depicted wielding Excalibur before this, a possible holdover from one of Malory's sources. At one point the blade is stolen by Morgan le Fay and used in an attempt to kill Arthur by giving him a fake while pitting him against an opponent who has the real sword. Arthur figures out the deception after his sword breaks and retrieves Excalibur to kill his enemy. The sword is thrown back into the lake by Sir Bedivere after the final battle where Arthur is fatal wounded by Mordred.
  • Nightside: Excalibur is delivered to the protagonist for safekeeping, to his great discomfort, since he knows he's not worthy of it. It's eventually revealed to be a fragment of Light (as in, "Let There Be Light"), and a tool of Gaia herself.
    Oracle: I told you, it's so potent I can't even get a good look at it. You could cut the world in half with a weapon like that... It's much more than a sword. More than a weapon. It's the lever you turn to move the world.
  • The Pendragon Cycle: Excalibur is an Atlantean sword wielded by King Avallach and later his grandson Merlin. After Arthur's original sword is broken in battle, he receives it as a replacement from Merlin's mother Charis, this series's version of the Lady of the Lake.
  • The Secret Of Excalibur has Excalibur being accidentally made out of a superconductor capable of channelling earth energy from ley lines. The protagonists are looking for it in the modern age because it can be used as part of a superweapon. Caliburn also exists; Caliburn was the prototype of the sword, but it didn't work properly, and Excalibur was a refined version created after Caliburn was broken into three sections.
  • The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel: Excalibur is the sword of water, being one of the four elemental swords (the other three are Durendal (Earth), Clarent (Fire), and Joyeuse (Air)), and wielded by the main antagonist John Dee for most of the series. At the end, all four are fused together to become Marethyu's Hook Hand.
  • Sword Art Online: Excalibur is the most powerful weapon in the otherwise Norse-themed VRMMORPG Alfheim Online, the setting of the second Story Arc.
    • During the Fairy Dance arc itself, Kirito catches a glimpse of the weapon's hidden resting place (an icicle castle frozen into the roof of the game's underworld), but is unable to reach it.
    • At the climax of the arc, Sugou/Oberon attempts to spawn in a copy of Excalibur to fight Kirito. Kirito stops him... then spawns in Excalibur himself and hands it to his opponent, knowing that Sugou is a thief with no clue how "his" game even works, and that he has no chance of defeating an experienced player even with an overpowered weapon.
    • The Book 8 sidestory Caliber features the introduction of a new quest chain said to have Excalibur as a reward, which spurs Kirito to gather his friends and try to claim the weapon while he still has a chance. Within the game's lore, the "icicle castle" turns out to be a frozen lake created when the frost giants plunged Excalibur into the roots of the World Tree as part of their plans to invade the surface. Eventually the group succeed in destroying the castle by pulling Excalibur from its resting place... only to find that its actual name is "Holy Sword Excaliber" [sic]. Kirito surmises that the unusual spelling was a Pun on how the item is a Bragging Rights Reward which proves its wielder's caliber (at least, after all he went through to get it, he likes that explanation better than "one of the devs made a typo").
    • A Nerfed form of the weapon, "Fake Sword Caliburn", is also mentioned as the reward for the "normal" version of the quest chain, granted to parties who choose to side with the frost giants.
  • That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: Excalibur and Caliburn are both Mythical/God-class swords wielded by the greatest Master Swordsman in the whole world. That man? It's Dino, the lazy and apathetic Fallen Angel who almost never fights seriously because it's not in his nature to do so, and in fact usually sticks to a slightly weaker BFS when he actually bothers to do so.
  • The Warlord Chronicles: Excalibur is the Sword of Rhydderch, one of the Thirteen Treasures of Britain.
  • Warhammer Fantasy: In the Legend of Sigmar trilogy, Sigmar faces the Teutogen king Artur, who wields the Dragon Sword of Caledfwlch, said to have been forged for him by a shaman from across the seas when he was born.

    Live-Action TV 
  • The Adventures of Pete & Pete: Excalibur is not a sword, but a garage door opener that Little Pete finally gets to play with when he fakes being sick. It also has a very triumphant, medieval commerical jingle.
  • Burnistoun parodies this: A series of sketches has an ordinary bloke find a legendary sword (depicted as a large sword with glowing runes on it), wedged in a crack in the ground rather than in the traditional stone. He pulls it out easily, and a man who resembles King Arthur appears, telling him that he is The Chosen One and needed to fight evil. Unfortunately, as Arthur Puts it, the chosen one is a fanny and prefers pubbing to fighting evil. Eventually he sells the sword to a kebab restaurant, who uses it to cut off gyro meat.
  • Charmed (1998): The Lady of the Lake is killed by a demon, and the Charmed Ones come into possession of Excalibur, once more in the stone. Piper manages to pull it out, but it begins to corrupt her, as apparently anyone not "chosen" to wield it will eventually go mad with power. It turns out that Excalibur is actually destined for Wyatt, and Piper managed to pull it out because, as his mother, she's now the new Lady of the Lake.
  • Cursed (2020): Never mentioned by name, but the Sword of Power is assumed to be Excalibur because it's possessed by Nimue, The Lady of the Lake, and provides a claim to the throne.
  • Doctor Who: In Battlefield, Excalibur is key to resurrecting a King Arthur from an Alternate Universe. Only, Arthur's really long dead...
  • Hercules: The Legendary Journeys: One episode sees a Jerkass warlord version of King Arthur try to retrieve Excalibur from the stone so that its magic will enable him to be unstoppable, only for Merlin's magic to send him back to Hercules' time (whenever that is). Deciding to just conquer things there, he retrieves Excalibur from the Lady in the Lake. However, Hercules and a younger Merlin manage to talk him into a Heel–Face Turn; he surrenders the sword to Hercules, who plants Excalibur into the stone, closing the Stable Time Loop and returning Arthur to his own time.
  • Kaamelott goes with the "sword in the stone" route. Arthur manages to pull the sword from the stone at age six (as he was chosen by the gods of Brittany), and it becomes a Flaming Sword whenever he wields it. He puts it back in the stone in Season 5 before disappearing. In Kaamelott: Premier Volet (The Movie), Arthur reclaims the sword, but it seemingly loses its powers... and regains them in the climactic duel pitting Arthur against Lancelot, only this time the flame is blue and produces lightnings.
  • Kamen Rider OOO wields the Medajalibur, Kamen Rider Wizard has the Axcalibur in his Super Mode, while the first five of the Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger each carry an identical Gabricalibur.
  • Legends of Tomorrow: In "Camelot/3000", it's revealed that the blade of Excalibur is actually a piece of the Spear of Destiny, fitted into the sword and plunged into the stone in order to hide it.
  • Merlin (1998): Merlin is given Excalibur by the Lady of the Lake. Merlin gives the sword to Uther Pendragon, but then takes it back when Uther proves not to be worthy of wielding it. He then places it into the care of the Rock of Ages, asking him to only relinquish it to a man with a good heart. A teenaged Arthur later shows up and successfully shifts it from the stone after the Rock witnesses his goodness. After Arthur's death, Merlin returns the sword to the Lady of the Lake.
  • Merlin (2008): It was created in the episode called "Excalibur", has been thrown into the lake by Merlin, was retrieved by his watery girlfriend, and is currently residing in a large stone. Interestingly, three seasons in and it has still not been named or identified as the legendary Excalibur, nor wielded by Arthur himself. By the end of the fourth series, Excalibur has been pulled out of the stone and is in Arthur's possession, but still hasn't been called "Excalibur".
  • Once Upon a Time:
    • Prince Charming used Excalibur to convince Snow White that she was the rightful ruler of The Enchanted Forest by showing that he was unable to pull it from the stone. She gained the confidence to face down her stepmother, Regina. After, Rumplestiltskin pointed out to her that only Arthur would be able to pull the real one from the stone, regardless of where the stone was.
    • In the fifth season, Arthur pulls Excalibur out of the stone, only to discover that it's missing the tip. A cut reveals that the tip is the blade of the Dark One's dagger. It's later revealed that Excalibur was forged by Merlin from the melted down Holy Grail.
  • Warehouse 13: The sword is relegated to a rare minor role in one episode's Cold Open of Agents Latimer and Bering just finishing a case retrieving it. The sword is forged of a rare metal that reacts with the equally rare metals in the stone to become intangible, a fact Arthur exploited in a stunt to become King.

    Pinball 
  • Crystal Caliburn is named after the sword, and it is one of the knightly weapons to be retrieved.
  • Golden Logres includes both Excalibur and Caliburn as two of the artifacts that must be recovered.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Dungeons & Dragons: In the 1st Edition supplement Deities & Demigods/Legends & Lore, King Arthur and Excalibur are both statted and Excalibur lives up to its Absurdly Sharp Blade status being described as a "+5 Sword of Sharpness" — this would under 1st edition rules sever a limb or the head of a normal opponent on approximately 35% of successful hits.
  • Fabula Ultima: Excalibur is one of the core rulebook's sample rare sword weapons. It's classified as a two-handed sword that inflicts light damage and gives its wielder immunity to all status effects.
  • Shadows over Camelot: Excalibur can be won from the Lady of the Lake in a Sidequest, which advances the game towards victory (or towards defeat if the quest is failed). The sword itself gives the bearer an incremental bonus to combat checks, and can be sacrificed to negate one negative event as it occurs.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!: There's an archetype of mosnters called Noble Knights based on the Knights of the Round Table, who wield Noble Arms Equip Cards. Excalibur is featured as an Equip Card here, as is Caliburn.

    Truth in Television 
  • Truth in Television from which the Excalibur myth was taken: in ancient times, aging Celtic heroes threw their inherited, heirloom blades into the swamps to appease the spirits who dwelt there, who presumably kept their weapons safe after they died. They've found tons of swords buried in the former lake around the former isle of Avalon, aka Glastonbury Tor.

    Video Games 
  • Assassin's Creed: Valhalla: Excalibur was left at Stonehenge after King Arthur's death. Eivor can take the weapon and use it against any enemy.
  • Backyard Sports: Backyard Skateboarding has the unlockable Excaliboard (obviously based on Excalibur).
  • Breath of Death VII: Excalibur is the main character's Infinity +1 Sword. It can be obtained after defeating Dragonduck, the Superboss of the game.
  • Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow had the Excalibur show up as a sword in the stone... Amusingly enough, Soma's not the chosen one who can free it, so instead he swings the massive bolder the sword's attach to as well as the sword itself.
  • The Cave: The Knight's object of desire is Excalibur, with the only problem being that he's not really a knight and as such doesn't know how to use the sword when he has to fight a dragon.
  • City of Heroes: Ms. Liberty holds Excalibur on her belt. The sword was entrusted to her by Hero 1 before he left Primal Earth as part of the Omega Team. Ms. Liberty is incapable of wielding Excalibur, but she carries it with her waiting for Hero 1 to return. Players who run the Lady Grey Task Force learn that Hero 1 has returned... as a Rikti.
  • Conqueror's Blade: The King-Arthur-themed Season XVIII: Avalon featured a Longsword cosmetic skin called "Excalibur's Heir."
  • Day Dreamin' Davey: One Medieval stage has Davey overcome all obstacles in order to find the sacred sword Excalibur, only that the "sword" that he has imagined is actually a ruler while he's sitting in the corner in class.
  • Dragalia Lost has Excalibur as the 6-star weapon for Wind Sword Adventurers. A second refinement allows not just the weapon to be made just an Infinity Plus 1.5 sword, but adds a cosmetic effect as well to show you've taken on Ciella on Legend Mode.
  • Evil Genius: Excalibur is a treasure that can be stolen in both games. It's never used as a weapon, but the second game lampshades this by pointing out how Merlin said the sword's bearer is invincible, but that was before guns were invented.
  • Final Fantasy has featured Excalibur or variant spellings as a weapon in nearly every game. If there's a sword wielding character, you can bet they'll end up wielding it.
    • Several games in the series feature a shoddy knock-off Excalipoor. Sometimes it's pretty good if you throw it. It's usually found in the hands of Gilgamesh, who has once again mistaken it for the real deal.
    • Final Fantasy IX has, in addition to the regular old Excalibur an even better Excalibur: Excalibur 2. It's pretty much impossible to get without specifically trying for it, since you need to reach almost the end of the game within 12 hours.
    • In Final Fantasy X, Tidus's Infinity +1 Sword is called Caladbolg in western releases. In JP, it's called Ultima Weapon.
    • Final Fantasy XIV takes both Excalibur and its original spelling and turns them into two different powerful swords. Excalibur is a special weapon that can be obtained by Paladins after obtaining the sword Curtana and converting it as part of A Realm Reborn's Zodiac Weapon storyline. The other weapon, Caladbolg, is a weapon for Dark Knights who complete their Stormblood questline.
  • Fire Emblem:
    • Excalibur itself shows up throughout the series, but unlike most examples it, as well the similarly named Rexcalibur, is usually portrayed as a high-level wind tome, not a sword.
    • The Tellius games (Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn) feature Caladbolg as a special weapon that only Edward can use.
  • Freedom Wars: Dead Channel's Greatsword is a laser bastard sword that starts off with the name of Caliburn as its pre-upgraded form, and if the player upgrades the Caliburn with parts from Panopticon Abductors and Red-Rage, then the Caliburn becomes Excalibur as its Impact form.
  • Golden Sun: In Golden Sun: The Lost Age and Dark Dawn, the Excalibur is one one of the strongest swords in both games and obtained by forging an orihalcon with a 5% probability.
  • Guenevere has King Arthur, wielding Excalibur as usual, as a major character.
  • In The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure, Caladbolg is used as the name for Noel Seeker's Infinity -1 Sword in Azure, which can be found in the Azure Tree. It's also a submachine gun instead.
  • The Legend of Zelda: In the French language translations, the Master Sword is referred to as "Excalibur", except in Ocarina of Time and Skyward Sword, where is it called "L'Épée de Légende" ("the Sword of Legend").
  • Love of Magic: The protagonist's weapon is Excalibur; he needs the help of Arthur's great-granddaughter to draw it from the stone. Excalibur is an Empathic Weapon, Morph Weapon, and Absurdly Sharp Blade, and has been the chosen weapon of heroes back to at least Alexander the Great.
  • Magicka: Excalibur appears in a similar fashion as it does in Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow; Sure, you can't use it as a sword, but it makes a damn good mace in the mean time.
  • NetHack: Players can receive Excalibur by dipping a Longsword into a fountain if they are Lawful.
  • Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams: Excalibur is one of the best swords (possibly the best) that Soki can obtain. In order to get it you need to battle through 50 levels of the Dark Realm, with the implication that the demons have hidden it away. The sword both does extra damage to and grants protection from darkness based enemies/magic, respectively.
  • RuneScape has Excalibur as well, at first taking the form of low leveled sword, used to complete the Merlin's Crystal quest. However, by completing the Seer's Village Hard Tasks, the player can have it upgraded to a significantly stronger off-handed version.
  • Secret of Mana: In the introduction, it's said that Excalibur is one of the many names that the Holy Sword of Mana has gone by throughout history.
  • The Secret World, being set in a world where All Myths Are True, quite naturally features Excalibur. It's actually the MacGuffin of the first major story arc. Having been stolen from its Arthurian resting place by Vikings, it was then taken to New England in order to help the Wabanaki tribe fight off an invasion by Mayans hell-bent on unleashing the entity slumbering under Solomon Island. Unfortunately, the sword was lost on the return journey and remained so until the 21st century, when it was accidentally discovered by a fishing vessel and brought back to Solomon Island; unfortunately, it brought the zombified Vikings with it — which is where the player gets involved. Eventually, Freddy Beaumont acquires the sword and tries to seize the Island's power with it before getting his ass handed to him by the player; unfortunately, Beaumont's Dark Mistress makes off with Excalibur immediately afterward and hasn't been seen since.
  • Sonic and the Black Knight combines the sword backstories in a somewhat interesting way. At the very start of the game, Sonic draws a sword named Caliburn from a stone. Near the end, however, Sonic's Once an Episode Super Mode actually changes Caliburn into Excalibur, essentially making the sword in the stone and Excalibur into the same blade. And the Lady of the Lake does sort of give Excalibur to Sonic in this way; it's at her instruction that the method of activating this game's Super Mode occurs.
  • Soul Sacrifice, being based on the Arthurian mythos, features Excalibur. However, it is considered a Black Rite. Why? It's a sword made out of your heart.
  • The backstory of the Soul Series, like Secret of Mana above, establishes that Excalibur is but one of the forms Soul Calibur has taken on over the course of the history, with King Arthur being the second known wielder of the holy sword. Arthur was gifted by an "unbreakable blade" by a woman all but said to be the Lady of the Lake, which turned into Excalibur in his hands and was later used to defeat the King of the Saxons (who, unsurprisingly, was wielding Soul Edge at the time).
  • Super Robot Wars Z: In Second Super Robot Wars Z: Saisei-hen, the Humongous Mecha belonging to Prince Uther Insaraum wields the Collbrande. However, the sword was sheathed for more than 2000 years, until Uther awakened it.
  • Terraria: Excalibur was originally the last and best sword in the game, crafted with three other swords, and possessing an auto swing that makes it a very overpowered blade. A few updates later, the game introduced True Excalibur, a reinforced version of the blade.
  • The Tiamat Sacrament: The strongest Rune Blade in the game is named "Excalibur" and like many examples of the sword in video games, it's light elemental. It's also a darker take on the sword, since it can only be obtained by Rune Sealing Az'uar's brainwashed and mutated brother, Az'golath.
  • Tomb Raider: Legend: Excalibur and the rest of the Arthurian myth is the backdrop the game, but the sword is much older than Arthur and several other ancient cultures and actually serves as a key to open a portal to Avalon.
  • Warframe: Excalibur is available not as a sword, but as a starter Warframe themed around being a Master Swordsman.
  • Wild Blood, being inspired directly by the Arthurian legend, have Excalibur as a Sword of Plot Advancement. You'll need to defeat a Brainwashed and Crazy King Arthur in a boss fight to retrieve it, to slay Morgana's invincible dragon form.

    Visual Novels 
  • Fate/stay night
    • Saber uses it. It's a Wave Motion Sword powerful enough to destroy skyscrapers on the lower settings, and could wipe out a good portion of a city at maximum power. Its considered an Anti-fortress-class weapon and is the only one of its class.
    • In the Fate route, as Shirou fights Berserker, he projects his definition of the strongest sword, which turns out to be Caliburn. On his own he can't use it's full strength, but with Saber's assistance, even just the projected form of it was powerful enough to kill Berseker seven times over.
    • Expanded materials further explain Excalibur's origins, including having been forged from the core of a star. In the prequel Fate/Zero, Excalibur disintegrates a Cthulhu knockoff. And in Fate/Extella it's revealed Excalibur was once used to destroy an alien superweapon that was powerful enough to fight and kill gods. That is the kind of power Excalibur possesses.
    • In Fate/Grand Order, Excalibur is forged within the British Lostbelt, or more accurately Lostworld, as one of the last parts of The Prophecy of the Avalon le Fae, the fairy sent from Avalon to absolve the sins of the fairies that didn't forge it in this timeline when the aforementioned alien superweapon Sefar wiped out all life on the planet. As part of this prophecy would have meant the destruction of the land of Britain, the first Avalon le Fae Morgan refused to accept this role, while the second one Altria Caster is prepared to sacrifice her life to complete it but instead the swordsmith Muramasa does so in her stead. Altria Caster then gives Chaldea the Lostworld's version of Excalibur for use against the similar extraterrestrial The Foreign God.

    Webcomics 
  • Arthur, King of Time and Space: Uther Pendragon, Arthur's father, allows people to believe his sword is the legendary Excalibur as a PR exercise. This is the sword that ends up in the stone, while the real Excalibur is in the care of the Lady of the Lake. That is, when it's not a starship, a global corporation, a marshal's badge...
  • Heroine Chic: Side character Avalon is the mythical Lady of the Lake, and she wields King Arthur's legendary sword due to a loophole in Merlin's rules. The sword was meant only to be carried by King Arthur, but the Lady of the Lake had to be able to bequeath it upon him — and thus she gained an exemption to the Only the Chosen May Wield clause. She uses the blade in her work as a superhero in modern day New York, fighting super villains and extradimensional monsters in between brunch dates with her superpowered buddies.
  • Homestuck: One of Dave's sidequests in Sburb was to find and retrieve Caledfwlch, aka the Legendary Piece of Shit. It was embedded in a stone, and rather than attempting to pull it, he felt he instead had to break it out. Davesprite had already done the same before travelling back in time, and had already alchemized it into the superior Caledscratch, making the Caledfwlch more or less useless... for a while, as it's later used to create an Infinity +1 Sword called the Royal Deringer.

    Western Animation 
  • Angel Wars: A sword called "Caliburn" is in this series, and it's an unbreakable sword made from Heaven's purest elements, and is the key to defeating a demon named Discord.
  • Filmation's Ghostbusters features Excalibur, conflating it yet again with the Sword in the Stone. Here, it's used to set up a Stable Time Loop in the stone age — they get it stuck in the stone that Arthur will pull it from.
  • Gargoyles: King Arthur appeared, initially sans Excalibur. He eventually retrieved it, but not without a clash with Macbeth, who argued that, as an immortal and former monarch himself, the prophecy of "a timeless king" could also apply to him.
  • G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero: In one episode, Cobra swordsman Storm Shadow gets his hands on Excalibur, which among other things can cut through a stone pillar in a single swipe.
  • The Smurfs (1981): In "The Smurfs of the Round Table", the Smurfs help a shrunken Sir Lancelot retrieve Excalibur after it had been stolen from King Arthur by Morgan Le Fey and used to turn the king and all of Camelot into wax that would melt by the sun's scorching heat.
  • ThunderCats (1985): Mumm-Ra seeks out a weapon powerful enough to defeat the Sword of Omens. The only weapon without question powerful enough to do the job is Excalibur. Through trickery Mumm-Ra obtains it and defeats the Sword of Omens after the swords fight on their own. It looks like evil wins until Merlin shows up, takes back the sword and kicks Mumm-Ra's ass.

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