According to The New York Post, citing a report by The Telegraph, n sword that is regarded as France’s “Excalibur” has vanished from its stone. Per the publication, locals in the French town of Rocamadour believed the sword, Durandal, had been lodged in rock for around 1,300 years. A main attraction for the town, the sword could be found stuck in a sheer rock wall about 100 feet off the ground
Authorities in France are working to determine how the sword was taken from the 100 foot sheer rock face.
There’s got to be a better headline - the sword’s name and legend looks just as compelling as Excalibur even if not as well known (outside France)
The point is that Excalibur is well known and Durendal isnt. They want eyes, and so make the article headline reference something everyone knows, then educate in the article body.
Durandal is well known by people whose opinions on swords in stones matter
That probably wasn’t the target audience of the article. It was probably people who were more likely to know Excalibur than Durendal.
Counterpoint: The opinions of people that know about Durandal don’t matter to the people whose opinions matter about article headlines.
Why would illiterate people care about article headlines?