Durandal, where are you?

Locals of small village in France left perplexed as an 8th-century mythical sword goes missing

So the legend goes that an angel gave the sword, named Durandal to the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne, who in turn entrusted it to his faithful knight, Roland. Roland tried to break his trusty sword after being wounded at a battle but found out that it was indestructible. So, instead, he hurled it towards the sky, and Durandal landed in a giant rock 32 feet above ground. This sword, dangling halfway from the rock and suspended by a chain had become one of the main attractions of the tiny ancient village of Rocamadour, in south-western France.

But now it has vanished. An officer with France’s national police force in Cahors, a town 30 miles southwest of Rocamadour, said that the sword disappeared sometime after nightfall on June 21 and that the authorities opened an investigation after a passerby reported the next morning that it was missing.

The villagers are left feeling as if they’ve been struck by a medieval curse. “We’re going to miss Durandal. It’s been part of Rocamadour for centuries, and there’s not a guide who doesn’t point it out when he visits,” told the somber Mayor Dominique Lenfant to a French newspaper.

While the case is being treated as a theft, local police are scratching their heads at how the sword could have been swiped, considering its peculiar location next to a sanctuary with limited access while being chained to the rock. Now, the heartbroken locals are desperately hoping for the return of their treasured relic, praying that the misguided thieves or the bumbling authorities will restore Durandal to its rightful place in the rock wall where Roland heroically lodged it.

1,300
year-old ancient sword goes missing

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