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Discovering Avalon and Disappointment: The Bad King Arthur Easter Egg in Skyrim (Edited)

My brother and I used to binge watch episodes of a show called "Merlin". I found it really interesting and I liked the style of adaptation used in the show and my brother liked swords and death (he was a little edgy back then). I then connected it to my favorite video game of all time, Skyrim. I found out that in Skyrim there is a King Arthur themed Easter egg, however you will find it quite disappointing. 
West of Whiterun, you will encounter a small "lake". Inside of said lake there is a skeleton's arm. That skeleton is grasping a leveled sword. Approach it and retrieve the sword from the arm, which will then collapse into the water. Unfortunately, the sword isn't special and it is quite boring.  The sword is only leveled so it does not have any special properties and the fact that its outside the first city of Whiterun makes the chances of you running into it early on very possible. If the developers wanted to try and make a quest about it and reference Arthurian legends then they certainly could have.  
Speaking of Arthurian legend, the entire egg is a reference to the Lady of the Lake. The specific name of this woman has been heavily debated (one quick search and I found names ranging from Vivien to Ninianne to Evienne). What has not been debated is her importance to the story of Arthurian legends. The most notable, and most important to our egg, is the part of a story where she gifts Arthur his fabled sword Excalibur. She lives at the bottom of the lake, and when the time comes, she lifts the sword high up with her arm for Arthur to retrieve it. The Skyrim version of this event is much less glamours and it is quite disappointing. 
The sword found in the game absolutely does not live up to that reputation. It's just a random leveled sword. It's not Excalibur, the most notable, recognizable, and, in canon, powerful sword of all time. It is so much more deserving then what the game gives it and it almost ruins it by having such a lousy egg be connected to such an amazing and influential series. 
For the reasons that the egg is too easily found, boring, and frankly could have been so much better, I give this egg a 2 out of 5 eggs.  
Feel free to comment about your adventure finding this egg and vent your frustration at the lack of greatness this could've been. 

Comments

  1. Bethesda is notorious for sneaking Easter eggs into their games. The Indiana Jones reference in New Vegas is one of my favorites. Could you possibly screen screencap your map so that we can find this particular Easter egg? There's a lot west of Winterun.

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