Trevor Penny was searching for lost and discarded objects in the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire in November 2023 when he made the discovery. The magnet fisher had been down on his luck that day and only pulled scaffolding poles from the water, he told Live Science in a message on Facebook. When Penny lugged out the sword, he didn’t immediately recognize what it was.
“I was on the side of the bridge and shouted to a friend on the other side of the bridge, ‘What is this?’” Penny, who is a member of the Thame Magnet Fishing Facebook group, recalled in the message. “He came running over shouting, ‘It looks like a sword!’”
You can’t expect to wield supreme executive power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!
If I went around saying I was an emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they’d put me away!
Shut up! Will you shut up?!