To get to Dozmary Pool you pass Colliford Lake Bodmin Moor Cornwall. The pool isn't signposted but from the map it's obvious exactly where it is. It is quite an eerie pool. The wooden gate leads you onto the path down to the pool and even though the weather was good, there was a damp feeling and a haze across the pool.
The water at the edge of Dozmary Pool lapped softly against the reeds and it was very easy to imagine that this is the place where the lady of the lake, her arm raised carrying Excalibur, returned the sword to King Arthur. Although it was equally possible to ask: how? the pool itself is relatively shallow or from which 'other world' she entered this shallow pool to give the sword known as Excalibur back to its rightful heir, the youthful King Arthur
Legend has it that the Lady of the Lake appears in Dozmary Pool deep in the heart of Bodmin Moor. Her job is to protect the sword known as Excalibur. She survives in the underwater, which could be a portal to another realm, this is quite likely because the pool itself is quite shallow with an impenetrable granite bed. Excalibur has been in her charge for a very very long time and she will bestow it only to the most worthy of swordsmen and of course, King Arthur. She doesn't seem to suffer the effects of aging perhaps because of the pools granite bed, or as some myths tell, she could be a time traveller, coming from an unknown realm of reality. It is said that she wears creamy white robes that glimmer in the eerie light surrounding the pool and seems to have certain powers over the reeds swaying at the edge of the pool. Perhaps the noise we heard was the lady rustling around as we approached.
There are rumours that the lady of the lake stole Lancelot as a child and later trained him to be the greatest of all the knights. The enchanted sword Excalibur offers complete protection to the honoured knight who wields it. A knight will become immune to the effects of stabbing, their wounds miraculously sealing themselves, losing not a drop of blood.
So when Sir Bedivere believed King Arthur mortally wounded in the battle of Cammlan, he threw Excalibur back into the lake at Dozmary Pool for its protection from falling into the wrong hands.
The lady of the lake's name is in dispute, some myths call her Nimue, others Niamh, there are also various reports of her carrying away the mortally wounded King Arthur
into the Celtic otherworld known as Avalon, to spend his time waiting
the call to return again to wield the sword of Excalibur once more.
