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In Artus de Bretagne, the first part of which was written around 1300, the hero wears a white or chequered shield. The article looks at this alternation and the pairing of the shield and sword, two elements that support the hypothesis of a two-stage writing process, with the end of the romance being an allographic continuation. The motif of the gift of the fairies sheds light on the intertextual practice at work in this neo-Arthurian narrative. Despite the topical formulation of coordinated references, the sword and the shield do not really form a pair: in the first part of the romance, the shield is more important than the sword, even though it is distinguished by the name Clarence. More than the sword, the shield is associated with light and love; it finds its place in descriptions exalting court and chivalry aestheticises their representations, and helps to construct Artus as the hero who restores light; the shield plays an important role in the love story of Artus and Florence. However, the treatment of the sword and the shield is not uniform throughout the text, the end from § 419 probably being an allographic continuation, which has added – clumsily – the Breton escutcheon, and which, more epic than courtly, re-establishes the primacy of the sword and demotes the shield.