“In the end, there can be only one.”

October 6, 2018 5:17 AM

An eight-year-old girl has pulled a 1,500-year-old sword from a lake in southern Sweden. [The Guardian] ““I felt something with my hand and at first I thought it was a stick,” Saga Nevecek told the local Värnamo Nyheter newspaper. “Then it had a handle that looked like it was a sword, and then I lifted it up and shouted: ‘Daddy, I found a sword!’” The find, made in July but announced only this week for fear it would trigger a summer stampede to the site at Tånnö on the shore of Lake Vidöstern, felt “pretty cool and a bit exciting”, she told the Swedish public broadcaster Sveriges Radio.”
posted by Fizz (35 comments total)

This is not the first time this has happened. [Previously.]
posted by Fizz at 5:18 AM on October 6, 2018 [4 favorites]

So which one is the rightful king?
posted by crocomancer at 5:23 AM on October 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

no, SHE is the rightful QUEEN!!!
posted by pyramid termite at 5:31 AM on October 6, 2018 [33 favorites]

it could be worse - if she'd pulled the sword out of an american lake, all she'd get is free whoppers for life, which would get tiresome and unhealthy
posted by pyramid termite at 5:33 AM on October 6, 2018 [19 favorites]

Well, the electoral mandate from the masses doesn’t seem to be working so well for Sweden at the moment, so perhaps it’s time to consider alternative means of determining supreme executive power?
posted by acb at 5:35 AM on October 6, 2018 [22 favorites]

This has happened twice now? Hmm, this is looks suspiciously like foreshadowing as women taking up swords is surely the path we're going down at this point. I guess the writers must getting an early start on future seasons.
posted by gusottertrout at 5:44 AM on October 6, 2018 [48 favorites]

Hmm, this is looks suspiciously like foreshadowing as women taking up swords

Lord knows us men have been fucking it up since forever. Maybe this is just the time-line trying to course correct.
posted by Fizz at 5:48 AM on October 6, 2018 [14 favorites]

I can help, I will make swords!
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:52 AM on October 6, 2018 [9 favorites]

I bow to our new World Queens Saga and Matilda, and hope they bring their swords to America soon to set things right. An evil bloated Orc is ruling here, and needs an army of girls and women to dispatch him.
posted by mermayd at 5:53 AM on October 6, 2018 [34 favorites]

My friend commented that strange women, lying in ponds, distributing swords is sounding better and better these days.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 5:56 AM on October 6, 2018 [74 favorites]

supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony
posted by entropicamericana at 6:17 AM on October 6, 2018 [21 favorites]

Actual systems for randomly selecting people for positions of public trust have existed, and there is a rationale that is all too pertinent now. It's a highly effective way to discourage corruption by making you bribe all the candidates if you're going to bribe any of them

I think at this point we need to try a new reform: legislative juries. Before bills leave a congressional committee, they get faxed/emailed to randomly selected federal court houses, and panels randomly picked from the jury pool have to spend a day reading them and voting on them. I nominate this little girl to be the first foreman.
posted by ocschwar at 6:21 AM on October 6, 2018 [10 favorites]

I bet if she put it in a container of rice for a day or two it would still work.
posted by srboisvert at 7:11 AM on October 6, 2018 [43 favorites]

Is her name really Saga?
posted by doctornemo at 8:02 AM on October 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

Hundred years, hundred more
Someday we may see a
Woman king, sword in hand
Swing at some evil and bleed...

-Iron and Wine, "Woman King"
posted by obliviax at 8:19 AM on October 6, 2018 [8 favorites]

LOL, if it was feasible, I would advocate for children to be able to go on archeological and paleontological digs. Kids have a unique perspective, are infinitely curious, naturally low to the ground and don't mind getting dirty ;-)
posted by Calzephyr at 8:28 AM on October 6, 2018 [8 favorites]

I prefer the photo of Saga in this post.
posted by Drab_Parts at 9:09 AM on October 6, 2018 [5 favorites]

"I'm not sure you should be touching it anymore," he replied. "It looks fragile."

Dad, you putz!
posted by chavenet at 9:15 AM on October 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

I feel like these two should team up and fight evil.
posted by es_de_bah at 9:16 AM on October 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

Clearly this has to happen once for each country of Europe and they'll form some kind of sword team.

Some variation is permitted. Perhaps France will prefer a sword found in a field over one found in a lake, for instance.
posted by RobotHero at 9:18 AM on October 6, 2018 [4 favorites]

No more spoons, only swords..?

I'm ok with that, actually.
posted by ZakDaddy at 9:29 AM on October 6, 2018 [6 favorites]

it could be worse - if she'd pulled the sword out of an american lake, all she'd get is free whoppers for life

Or, it could trigger an all-out war between Burger King and Dairy Queen.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:35 AM on October 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

That's nothing. My wife found a pair of pliers on the street a while ago (West Sweden. True Story).
posted by Namlit at 9:44 AM on October 6, 2018 [11 favorites]

I bow to our new World Queens Saga and Matilda, and hope they bring their swords to America soon to set things right.

Saga is apparently from Minnesota, so look for the uprising to begin there I guess.
posted by traveler_ at 9:59 AM on October 6, 2018 [6 favorites]

Is her name really Saga?

Saga is a popular name for girls in Sweden.
posted by Pendragon at 10:11 AM on October 6, 2018 [4 favorites]

Saga Norén, Länskrim Malmö
posted by ishmael at 10:30 AM on October 6, 2018 [8 favorites]

Is her name really Saga?

Y'all seriously need to get out more.

A cute piece from the Minnesota Star Tribune
posted by fraula at 12:59 PM on October 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

Now all she needs is a magic dog.
posted by JHarris at 2:27 PM on October 6, 2018

I had no idea that Brian K. Vaughan was so popular among Swedes.
posted by Apocryphon at 8:24 PM on October 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

”farcical aquatic ceremony"!
posted by monotreme at 11:50 PM on October 6, 2018

I for one welcome our new 8 year old girl overlords.
posted by zengargoyle at 12:54 AM on October 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
posted by DreamerFi at 2:44 AM on October 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

Strange Women Lying in Ponds Distributing Swords 2020
posted by Kadin2048 at 1:18 PM on October 7, 2018 [5 favorites]

Saga för Sveriges drottning!
posted by Chrysostom at 9:43 PM on October 7, 2018

Saga tells her story to Moya Sarner of the Guardian:

I pulled a 1,500-year-old sword out of a lake
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 6:39 AM on October 19, 2018 [2 favorites]