Medieval Knight Wielding ‘Excalibur’ Stopped By Armed Police

Three police officers from the Welsh police special firearms unit have confronted a sword-wielding “medieval knight,” by a lake in Cardiff.

King Arthur was one of the most illustrious legendary warriors of British mythology and according to the Visit Wales website, “his legend is still very much alive and well in Wales.” This statement finds a firm basis in reality when we consider a bizarre recent incident where Welsh armed police confronted a cloaked Arthurian knight armed with a medieval battle sword.

Lady of the Lake Gives This Arthur a Foam Excalibur

On Wednesday afternoon the dark-robed hooded swordsman was spotted at Hendre Lake, in St Mellons, a district and suburb of southeastern Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. The incident perfectly reflected the Welsh King Arthur’s visit to the “Lady of the Lake,” who lived in a castle beneath a Welsh lake surrounding the mystical island of Avalon. From this mythological lake the Lady gave Arthur his magical sword Excalibur, but this knight had his very own excalibur and it was this apparently deadly medieval weapon that caused local concern leading to three machine gun wielding cops swooping down on the curious knight.

It turned out that the medieval knight was not the ghost of King Arthur, but it was 20-year-old Lennon Thomas, a Dungeons and Dragons and history enthusiast who has since admitted he perhaps suffered a lapse in judgement bringing his sword out into the public domain, but in his defense he told the police that he was “simply enjoying a walk in his armor.”

Man dressed as knight who prompted armed police response says he was just taking a walk in his armourhttps://t.co/D5kMFjvOKQ pic.twitter.com/bo04vdC4i3

— WalesOnline (@WalesOnline) May 15, 2020

All Four Warriors Dropped Their Tools of War

A spokesperson for South Wales Police told MailOnline: “at 3.10pm on Wednesday 13th May, South Wales Police received a report from a member of the public that a man was seen at Hendre Lakes in Cardiff with a sword.” Medical technician Mike James, 31, who was out walking with his wife and son, saw the man walking around in this knight's outfit carrying a sword and said the “whole thing was really surreal - he looked like something out of Assassin's Creed.”

When the armed police turned up and tactfully approached the potential medieval assassin, the student, a self-proclaimed “fantasy knight,” was found wearing medieval style fancy dress, which included a 3ft (1m) long sword. When the fantasist was accosted by the three gun-toting officers, they soon established that he was of no harm to the public, and when the incident was over, the police involved appear to have seen the funny side, evident in that they are photographed smiling in an ITV article about the occurrence.

'Knight' with fake sword stopped by armed police in Cardiff https://t.co/1r4e5XzGlV pic.twitter.com/8U1Eac8C4x

— ITV Wales News (@ITVWales) May 15, 2020

Locals Panicked by the Strolling Medieval Knight

Unlike fantasy knights of legend, Lennon didn’t navigate a witch-infested magical forest, or cross a misty mountain range to get to the scene of the incident, for he lives less than a mile (1.6km) from Hendre Lake. Fearing the armed knight would launch an attack, the team of armed police swooped on what they called the “suspicious swordsman” only to find the man was out on his “daily exercise.” The knight in shining armor, Lennon, has become regretful over the course of the week having had time to reflect on his actions and he is “sorry,” telling the MailOnline that he may “have scared a few people around the lake.”

Occurring around 31 October, one could better understand why a 20-year-old student might have adorned a medieval costume, but the missing factor here is LARP, or Live Action Role Play, the popular interactive fantasy role-play game where the participants, in real life, physically portray their mythological characters in battles.

Evident on Larping.org, this exceptionally popular and fully-immersive hobby is played in almost every country in the world and in a ‘Larping’ context, the 20-year-old Dungeons and Dragons fan was merely testing the maneuverability of his new knight’s outfit, when the three cops from the firearm unit intercepted him as he strolled around the lake in St Mellons.

While he regrets bringing his sword with him to the lake, “I am no idiot” says Lennon, for he says he was simply “enjoying myself practicing for my hobby.”

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Immortal Words of the Gallant Knight

As one would expect from a highly-trained knight versed in the ways of “war craft”, the righteous and good Sir Lennon Thomas exuded total fairness in the face of three really highly-trained warriors armed with truly-deadly machinery, by admitting that he “had a lapse in judgement on the sword part.” And looking back at his experience at the edge of the Welsh lake, Lennon added that “perhaps bringing the sword wasn’t such a good idea, as from a distance it does look realistic.”

Summarizing his brush with the firearms unit, Lennon’s legendary last words have now been chronicled for all of time, and future Welsh folk might look back in awe at his brilliance when he said: “life is a lot more fun when you don't care how weird you are” (slides foam sword into scabbard and vanishes into mist).

Top image: Representation of a medieval knight walking along a beach. Credit: bint87 / Adobe Stock

By Ashley Cowie