Arthur reputedly received the sword Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake, and in a simple explanation, he was returning it to her, if one can assume that it was her arm that reached up to catch it. However, a deeper meaning could apply here as well. In what is described as the most epic battle of the narrative, Arthur slays his own illegitimate son, Sir Mordred, along with being forced to fight other knights formerly of his realm. Perhaps Arthur wanted to rid himself of this symbol of his kingdom's destruction. Malory additionally uses this scene to create a parallelism between King Arthur's death with that of Jesus'. In the Bible, Peter denies Jesus thrice shortly before his death, and Sir Bedivere approaches that mark by lying twice to the king that he threw the sword into the water.