The Once and Future King
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Image:Once future king cover.jpg The Once and Future King is an Arthurian fantasy novel written by T.H. White. It was first published in 1958, mostly as a composite of earlier works. ISBN 0441627404
The title comes from the supposed inscription of the marker over King Arthur's grave: HIC IACET ARTORIVS REX QVONDAM REXQVE FVTVRVS — "Here lies Arthur, the once and future king."
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Overview
The book, most of which ''takes place on the isle of Gramarye'', chronicles the raising and education of King Arthur, his rule as a king, and the romance between his best knight Sir Lancelot and his Queen Guenever. It ends immediately prior to King Arthur's final battle against his illegitimate son Mordred. Though White admits his book's source material is loosely derived from Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur (The Death of Arthur), he creates a personal reinterpretation of the epic events, filling them with renewed meaning for a world enduring the Second World War. Template:Wikibookspar The book is divided into four parts:
- The Sword in the Stone (1938)
- The Queen of Air and Darkness (1939) (originally titled The Witch in the Wood)
- The Ill-Made Knight (1940)
- The Candle in the Wind (First published in the composite edition, 1958)
A final part called The Book of Merlyn was published separately (ISBN 029270769X) following White's death. It chronicles Arthur's final lessons from Merlyn before his death, although some parts of it were incorporated into the final editions of the previous books.
Despite the subject matter of the original story, White infuses his book with anti-nationalism and pacifist sentiment. The later parts especially contain obvious symbolism: e.g., Mordred's Thrashers are easily Nazis; King Uther Pendragon, as suggested by his birth and death dates, symbolizes the monarchy before the Magna Carta. In fact, although the work, at least in part, can be read as a light and enjoyable comedy, it can also be interpreted as quite a serious political commentary.
One often quoted passage from the book is the story which the badger calls his "dissertation," a retelling of the Creation story from Genesis.
Plot summary
The Sword in the Stone chronicles Arthur's (called Wart) raising by his foster father Sir Ector, his rivalry with his foster brother Kay, and his initial training by Merlyn, a wizard who lives through time backwards. Merlyn, knowing the boy's destiny, teaches Wart what it means to be a good king by turning him into various kinds of animals: fish, ants, birds. Most importantly, before he takes the throne, Wart learns to challenge the concept that "might makes right."
In fact, Merlyn instills in Arthur the concept that the only justifiable reason for war is to prevent another from going to war then, and that contemporary human governments and powerful people exemplify the worst aspects of the rule of Might.
In The Queen of Air and Darkness, White sets the stage for Arthur's demise by introducing the Orkney clan and detailing Arthur's seduction by their mother, his half-sister Morgause. While the young king suppresses initial rebellions, Merlyn leads him to envision a means of harnessing potentially destructive Might for the cause of Right: the Round Table.
The third part, The Ill-Made Knight, shifts focus from King Arthur to the story of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guenever's forbidden love and its effect on Lancelot's estranged wife Elaine and the King.
The Candle in the Wind unites these narrative threads by telling how Mordred's hatred of his father and Agravaine's hatred of Sir Lancelot caused the eventual downfall of King Arthur, Queen Guenever, Sir Lancelot, and the entire ideal kingdom of Camelot.
The book begins as a quite light-hearted account of the young Arthur's adventures, Merlyn's incompetence at magic, and King Pellinore's interminable search for the Questing Beast. In parts, it reads almost as a parody of the traditional Arthurian legend by virtue of White's prose style, which relies heavily on anachronisms. However, the tale gradually becomes darker until Ill-Made Knight loses much of the original humor and The Candle in the Wind is mirthless.
Characterization in the Work
Perhaps most striking about White's work is how he reinterprets the traditional Arthurian characters, often giving them motivations or traits more complex or even contradictory to those in earlier versions of the legend. For example:
Arthur is a well-intentioned king as trained by Merlyn, but it seems that his greatest flaw is his inability to adapt once Merlyn leaves him. As such, he comes off as well-meaning yet rather ineffectual.
Launcelot is no longer the handsome knight typical in the romantic legends but is instead portrayed as the ugliest of that lot and, in addition, cruel. He seeks to overcome his flaws through full devotion towards becoming Arthur's greatest knight.
Merlyn lives through time backwards, making him a bumbling yet wise old man who is getting younger.
It is also interesting to note that White allows Thomas Malory to have a cameo appearance towards the end of the final book. Also of note is White's treatment of historical characters and kings as mythological within this world that he creates. In addition, due to his living backwards, Merlyn makes many anachronistic allusions to events in more recent times; of note are references to the Second Boer War, telegraphs, tanks, and " an Austrian who … plunged the civilized world into misery and chaos".
The Work as a Political Commentary
Underscoring the story of Arthur's life, from his youth and education to the end of his reign, is a well thought out commentary on how mankind should govern itself, written in the context of the Second World War.
When Arthur first ascends to the throne, the country is ruled by what he calls Fort Mayne, or the rule of the strongest. The barons and nobles ride around the countryside doing whatever they wish--being unpleasant, exploitative, and sometimes murderous. Despite the ongoing question of whether humanity is naturally evil, through most of the book King Arthur is optimistic that there is a means to curb humanity's tendency toward violence and cruelty. The latter three parts of the book show the progression of his search for a solution.
His first solution to the rule of power is to crush it with power. As a young king, he conquers rival barons in a war in which Arthur dispenses with gentlemanly protocols so as to force the barons to experience the horrors of war firsthand. However, this is clearly not a permanent solution, but merely perpetuates the problem.
His next move is to channel power into something worthy. He invents Chivalry, and forms the Round Table, making it a goal for his knights to use their Might to rescue maidens and right wrongs. However, this solution does not last for long. Once all the wrongs are righted, and England settles into a golden period of peace and lawfulness, the knights grow bored, and things at court start to go badly. Pettiness and squabbling arise, and society stagnates. A better solution is needed.
Arthur's next move is to seek the solution from outside the mundane world. He sends his knights on a quest for the Holy Grail — aiming their power toward God instead of toward worldly things. This, however, is a failure, too, because any knight who achieves the quest is perfect, and thus no longer suitable to live in an imperfect world. The other knights who fail are for a time positively affected by the quest (Sir Lancelot in particular), but it does not take long for them to fall back into their old ways.
Arthur's final solution as king is to formalise power: he invents Civil Law. Instead of power being wielded by the knights, it now belongs to the state. An example of this would be the replacing of trial-by-battle with trial by jury. This solution comes back to bite Arthur when the affair between Guinevere and Launcelot is exposed: adhering to his new law means that he must punish his beloved wife and his best friend. However, Lancelot rescues Guinevere and they escape to his castle together.
The book ends with Arthur, a weary old man, waiting for the final battle between Mordred's Thrashers and his knights. He wonders where he has gone wrong, and whether humans can ever learn to renounce violence. Before going forth, Arthur charges a young page (Malory) with keeping alive his legend and his ideals until a better day.
This is where The Book of Merlyn fits in: Arthur is taken to Merlyn's cave, where he meets many of his old friends from The Sword in the Stone — animals with whom he has spent time. He then spends some time as an ant, and as a goose, experiencing the structure of their societies. The ant is a fiercely territorial animal, with a rigidly structured life. The goose, on the other hand, is free, without any boundaries or borders, flying where it wants. Arthur spends an idyllic few days as a goose, before he is dragged back to Merlyn's cave. He realises that boundaries, which don't actually exist, but are purely mental constructs in human minds, are the real cause of the strife in the world, and that humanity should do away with them if he wants to achieve a successful and peaceful society.
Adaptations
Walt Disney made a very loose adaptation of The Sword in the Stone in 1963. This movie reflects more the sense of humour of Disney's team of animators than White. Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's 1960 musical Camelot (which was made into a movie in 1967) is also based on The Once and Future King, and features White's idea of having Thomas Malory make a cameo appearance at the end.
In Popular Culture
It has been mentioned several times in the "X-men" comics (notably in the first issue of the X-Tinction Agenda story arc) that Professor Charles Xavier's favorite book is The Once and Future King. In the beginning of the film X2: X-Men United, the main antagonist, Magneto, reads an old copy of the book in his prison cell. The film ends with the protagonist, Professor X, using the book as a teaching tool.