An eight-year-old girl in Sweden was on a family vacation when she found what turned out to be a 1,500-year-old sword, she wrote in a story for The Guardian.
The girl, Saga, said she found the ancient object when she was searching the bottom of the lake for stones to skip.
“One end had a point, and the other had a handle, so I pointed it up to the sky, put my other hand on my hip and called out, ‘Daddy, I’ve found a sword!’” she said.
Her father initially thought it was just an odd stick, the BBC reported. After he and a friend looked at it a bit closer, however, he realized it was no ordinary branch.
According to a press release from Jönköping County Museum, the family contacted archeologist Annie Rosén to share the news. The museum placed the sword in a conservator and returned to search the lake for any other relics. They found a 1,500-year-old brooch and a coin from the 18th century, Saga said.
When she returned to school, Saga’s class threw a party to celebrate her “sensational” find, she told The Guardian. While she was happy to share her little piece of history with others at the museum, she was sad to have lost it, so her family started a fundraiser to pay for a replica.
The internet has now deemed Saga the Queen of Sweden, since King Arthur was said to have been given a prophetic sword by a woman in a lake. Saga said she has bigger dreams, though, like being a vet or an actor in Paris.
“It feels like that lake might be a little bit magic. On that day I felt a little bit magic, too,” she said.
We may not all be iconic enough to find an ancient sword in a lake, but maybe we can take Saga’s lead anyway, and try to find the magic in everyday life. After all, neither Queen Saga nor King Arthur lived their lives expecting to find those legendary swords. Maybe the magic is in the serendipity.
