Balin's Sword

[Great Sword: place information here]

Historical Background
Balin and Balan were brothers in Arthurian legend. Balin was known as Balin the Savage (and the Knight with Two Swords). A damsel arrives in the Court of King Arthur wearing a sword that can only be drawn from its sheath by a virtuous knight with skill. Balin was the only knight able to take the sword. This earned him the name of Knight with Two Swords, having his own sword and this damsel's sword. The Lady of the Lake had a grievance with Balin's family and asked for King Arthur to decapitate Balin as payment for her giving him Excalibur. Instead, Balin decapitated her and left King Arthur's court shamed. Balin tries to get back into the court's favor by fighting enemies of Arthur. Balin also fights an invisible knight (brother of the Grail King Pellam) and Pellam himself. Balin eventually has to fight the defender of a castle, who turns out to be his brother Balan, who earned the position by killing the previous defender. Neither Balan nor Balin recognize each other since they are wearing unfamilar armor (Balan is wearing uncharacteristic red armor and Balin is wielding an uncharacteristic shield). Both end up mortally wounding one another. The second sword Balin obtained was cursed, though what specific curse it has isn't clear. That sword would eventually come to be used by Galahad, then Lancelot, then Gawain. Balin was never a member of the Round Table despite being a knight because he died before that group of knights was founded. Balin was only the knight in Arthurian legend to wield two swords. Balin and Balan was also the name of a poem written by Alfred Lloyd Tennyson in 1885.