Future King Themes
Plot Summary
Young "Wart" is the adopted son of a minor nobleman when he meets Merlyn, a kindly magician, who takes him on many adventures, turning him into several different animals and teaching him skills, both mental and physical. Wart is very happy and learns to treat people with respect and kindness. Soon after ,Wart pulls a magical sword from a stone, which proves him to be the rightful king of England (his real father was the recently dead King.) Merlyn, who knew this from the start, advises Wart-now called Arthur-on how to be a good king. What Arthur really wants to do is end chaos that passes for law in his country. He wants his men-the knights of the round table-to help defenseless people and prevent the rich and strong from simply …show more content…
dominating everyone. Many young knights love the idea and admire Arthur. Lancelot, who becomes the best knight in the world, and Arthur's best friend, still wrestles with self-doubt. Soon after he comes to court, he falls in love with Arthur's wife, Guenever. Arthur knows they are having an affair subconsciously, but he wants to pretend it isn't happening, so the three are able to live in relative harmony for many years.
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Arthur builds the Round Table into a predictable form of justice. Other prominent knights include the brothers of the Orkney clan, sons of the witch Morgause, Arthur's half-sister. Their names are Gawaine, Gaheris, Agravaine, Gareth and Mordred. These men are close-knit and hot-tempered. They love Arthur but come from a family that has always hated England, and the youngest, Mordred, is in a dangerous position. He is actually the son of Arthur and Morgause (she seduced her half-brother when he was young and vulnerable.) Since he is younger and has a different father from his brothers, Mordred feels out of place and hated by everyone around him, and he is angry and looking for revenge. Since Guenever has never had children, Mordred is Arthur's only offspring and therefore could become king if he can upset the court. He sees his chance with Guenever and Lancelot.
Mordred knows that because Arthur is just, he will not be able to avoid punishing an illegal act (adultery and treason), even if it involves his best friends. Though both Lancelot and Guenever love Arthur, they themselves are so in love that they cannot stay apart. Lancelot is tormented by guilt, always trying to do the right thing, believing that he must punish himself, but never finding the strength to end the affair. Finally, Mordred forces Arthur to recognize their affair, and once it is recognized, Arthur has no choice but to prosecute his wife and his best friend. The court begins to crumble as everyone is forced to take sides. Arthur's peaceful vision is undermined by Mordred's schemes. Lancelot kills Gareth, Gaheris and Agravaine, only because he has to, but Mordred convinces Gawaine it is because Lancelot has always hated their family. Gawaine swears he will never forgive Lancelot and makes sure Arthur will not either. Arthur leaves the castle, forced to fight Lancelot in France, and Mordred convinces the public he is dead, forcing Guenever to accept his marriage proposal.
At this point Arthur is very old, but he still remembers his original vision of brotherhood, for a time realized with the Round Table. Listening to the sounds of warfare outside, he brings in a young boy and tells him his story, so that it will not be forgotten. Arthur recognizes that he must die and is at peace with this, knowing that his ideas for law and justice will return. The story pulls backward, explaining that each person's fate is one drop in the ocean of life. Lancelot and Guenever become a priest and nun, and Mordred is killed. But the vision lives on: Arthur is the "once and future king.
Chapter 1: Arthur, or "Wart," as his bullying brother Kay has nicknamed him, is a young boy of about ten growing up in a small castle near a forest in Medieval England.
Arthur Was an Adopted Child. The Relationship Between Force and Justice
One of White’s most radical departures from previous versions of the King Arthur legend is the way he describes Arthur’s character. Previous versions of the story, including Sir Thomas Malory’s, tend to glorify Arthur as a great hero in conventional terms of military glory and valorous deeds, but White presents Arthur as a political innovator. White implies that Arthur is a great king not because of his strength on the battlefield, but because of his success at translating Merlyn’s morals into a just system of governance.
White’s main interest in this area, which he shows throughout the novel, is the relationship between strength and justice, which Arthur calls might and right. The medieval England of Arthur’s youth is unable to distinguish between might and right, and strength becomes its own justification. Whatever might does is considered to be right in this society. White’s negative view of this attitude is evident in his biting satire of medieval knights in the early chapters of the novel. From the Wart’s early experiences with the warlike ants, the peaceful geese, the power-hungry pike, and the wise badger, he learns alternatives to the notion that might equals right. Arthur then tries to institute these alternative ideas throughout England. White implies that modern and progressive civilizations are based on the idea of using force to create and maintain a just political system. Arthur is successful because he creates a more civilized England. Eventually, however, Arthur’s hard work is undone by internal tensions and by Mordred’s treachery. This turn of events suggests that as long as justice depends on force, it will face obstacles and setbacks.
The Role of War in Medieval England
Arthur’s England, particularly during the early part of his reign, is dominated by various forces competing for political prominence.
Therefore, war is inevitable, and war emerges as one of the major themes of The Once and Future King. But White presents war as an inexcusable barbarism, a pointless and ugly tragedy. Merlyn tells Arthur that the only time the use of force is justified is for self-defense.
The novel maintains an antiwar stance partly to challenge the important role that war plays in the rest of the Arthurian canon. Unlike in other classic Arthurian texts, the battle scenes in White’s novel are few and not terribly graphic. In the few battle that are in the novel, White satirizes knighthood and emphasizes the bloodshed and carnage that necessarily accompanies war. White underscores this point with the lessons that the Wart learns during his tutelage. In the Wart’s adventures in the animal kingdom among the fish, ants, and geese, he develops a sense that war is essentially unnatural. The only animals that practice war as a matter of course are the ants, and they seem more like robots than living beings. By the time Arthur becomes king, he has begun to understand how to see through the myths that glorify war and to understand the injustice of using might to make right. For instance, at the beginning of “The Queen of Air and Darkness,” the novel’s second book, Arthur realizes that knights on a battlefield are essentially bullies, hiding in suits of heavy armor as they slaughter the defenseless and
innocent.
The Frivolity of Knighthood
The engine of war in Arthur’s England is kept operational by knights, the legendary soldiers of the Middle Ages. The knights are the might half of the might-versus-right conundrum that Arthur is trying to solve, and they serve as protectors of Camelot’s moral codes. Nonetheless, because knights rely on muscle instead of morals, the novel examines them in much the same way it examines war. White often depicts knights as oafish clowns, in contrast to their portrayal as heroes and romantic figures in earlier interpretations of the King Arthur legend.
White also illustrates the tension between the brutal violence of knightly behavior and the elaborate codes of morality and courtesy that knights must follow to maintain their honor. This hidden tension between violence and chivalry is best embodied in the figure of Lancelot. He seems to be an almost unrealistic character, as he encounters so much death and violence without ever losing his commitment to honor. However, we know that emotionally, Lancelot is more insecure and uncertain about his honor than any other knight. White’s more humanized portrayal of knights undermines our ideas about the mythical warriors and warns us against idealizing them. These men cannot live up to the expectations of being both strong knights and pious men, and as a result, Camelot and the order of knighthood break down. The Once and Future King relies heavily on a variety of myths and legends to tell its story. Most notably, the entire novel is a reworking of the Arthur myth. White continually acknowledges that he is modernizing old stories by referring specifically to his sources. For example, the novel contains many asides about Sir Thomas Malory, quoting passages and pieces of dialogue from his fifteenth-century Le Morte d’Arthur. Malory even appears as a young page at the end of the novel. White flips the Arthurian legend around by constantly calling attention to the fact that his story has a precedent and by then exposing that precedent’s flaws. At times, it seems as if White is interested in debunking the validity of knighthood and also attacking the myths and legends that have romanticized knighthood for so long.
Blood Sports
White expresses the conflict between the brutality and courtesy of knightood by making frequent reference to blood sports, such as hunting and hawking. Like knightly warfare, blood sports are motivated by aggression and involve a great deal of brutality. But, like the code of chivalry, blood sports also involve a great deal of tradition and ritual. The Wart’s studying, for example, of the “etiquette of hunting” shows that blood sports are governed by a code of etiquette as strict as the one imposed on the bloody business of jousting. Like warfare, therefore, the blood sports in the novel boast a civilized veneer that masks their violent underpinnings.
Castles
Each of the different books in The Once and Future King revolves around a select few settings, and each of these settings is represented by a single castle that has a unique character. In “The Sword and the Stone,” for example, Arthur’s home is represented by Sir Ector’s Castle of the Forest Sauvage, a cozy place with a seemingly endless number of nooks and crannies for us to explore along with the Wart. Sir Ector’s castle is markedly different, however, from the glorious Camelot or the gloomy castle at Orkney. The castles in the novel have their own personalities that embody the hopes and fears of their inhabitants. Their heavily fortified walls vividly illustrate the separation between the novel’s worlds. When Uncle Dap finds Lancelot after his madness, for example, he refuses to enter Castle Bliant. He sits outside its wall, waiting to take Lancelot back to the intrigue of Camelot and Guenever and to leave behind the relatively banal world in which Elaine lives.
Symbols
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
The Round Table
Arthur conceives of the Round Table in “The Queen of Air and Darkness” around the same time that he has his epiphany about might and right. Throughout the rest of the novel, the Round Table is a physical manifestation of Arthur’s sense of fairness and justice. The table is designed so that the king’s knights will not squabble over rank—there is no head of the table for the best knight to claim as his own. Arthur does not want to create conflicts among knights because he wants them unified in their struggle to maintain peace in England. Even though Arthur’s knights show a wide variety of temperaments and frequently scatter across the country, the Round Table holds them together and gives them the name for their order. Therefore, the Round Table is a vital part of Arthur’s attempts to subjugate force to justice. It is the focal point of Arthur’s war for justice—by not allowing any one knight to gain status over any other, it comes to symbolize the very concepts it has been created to defend.
The Questing Beast
The Questing Beast represents the absurdity of knightly quests and serves as White’s way to deflate the notion of the quest as the route to knightly glory. King Pellinore has no real reason for wanting to catch the Questing Beast—which is not a threat to anyone—and yet he dedicates his entire youth to the project. Remarkably, none of the other knights ever thinks to question Pellinore’s dedication, and in their minds, as in his, the quest gives him a purpose. If Pellinore caught the Questing Beast, he would lose the activity that gives his life meaning, and when he has the chance to kill it, he chooses to help the beast instead. Once Pellinore finds real purpose in his love for his beloved wife, however, he forgets about the beast, reinforcing the idea that the Questing Beast is not meaningful in itself but is rather merely something to keep Pellinore occupied.
The Holy Grail
The Holy Grail, a copper cup or platter used by Jesus at the Last Supper, represents an otherworldly power that even Arthur’s knights are incapable of achieving. To find the Grail requires, in addition to knightly prowess, a purity of mind and soul that seems almost contradictory to the ideals of chivalry. The Holy Grail, therefore, symbolizes all that Arthur has not achieved. This revelation that Arthur’s England is far from a state of grace also marks the beginning of the end of his reign. 1. The tone of Book I is drastically different from the tone of Book IV. Book I is lighthearted and leisurely, whereas Book IV is tragic and fast paced. In your view, how do these two books come together? Which themes and elements of style connect them?
Answer: The two books between the Book I and Book IV provide a bridge from the lightheartedness of the Wart’s adventures in the Forest Sauvage to King Arthur’s final despair. This transition is enormous but gradual. In Book II, the world of Orkney is grim, but this grimness is offset by the antics of Sir Pellinore, Sir Grummore, and Sir Palomides. In Book III, the tone becomes darker, but the book also has a triumphant tone during the narration of Lancelot’s adventures.
While the tone drastically changes from Book I to Book IV, the themes and ideas expressed in these two books are similar. King Arthur, a simpleminded and optimistic man in Book IV, still has the childhood naïveté he shows in Book I. Also, the frivolity of knighthood appears in the first and last books. For example, King Pellinore’s refusal to kill his beloved Questing Beast is as pointless and silly a gesture as the trials by combat that appear in the fourth book. White also continues to point to the future in both books with his insinuations that Arthur’s reign will not last. 2. The quest for the Holy Grail is a central part of the Arthurian legend, but it gets only seven short chapters in Book III of The Once and Future King. What is the relevance of the quest to the idea of might versus right? Answer: The quest for the Holy Grail is Arthur’s attempt to get his knights to use their aggression productively. Once the knights have no more good deeds or chivalric acts to perform, they do not know what to do with their power. Arthur wants the restless knights to fight for a noble cause and therefore assigns them to fight for God. The quest is successful in that it occupies the knights for some time and even achieves its goal when the pious Sir Galahad finds the Holy Grail. The quest for the Holy Grail, however, has disastrous effects on Arthur’s court. Half of the knights are killed during the quest, and those who succeed on the quest disappear because they have reached perfection. The few knights who return unharmed do not seem to have learned anything from their adventure and are upset over the loss of their comrades. After the quest, the surviving knights are still just as bloodthirsty as they were when they started the quest, and they are certainly no holier or closer to God.
White does not focus on the quest for the Holy Grail in his novel in part because it is a detour in Arthur’s progress toward justice as the basis of civilization. Like Arthur’s attempt to use war on behalf of justice, the quest for the Holy Grail is his attempt to use war to serve God. Only later does Arthur realize that this goal asks too much, since it requires people to abandon their bad side instead of using it productively. 3. Most of Arthur’s conclusions about might and right come from Merlyn. To what extent do you think Arthur learns to think for himself by the end of the novel and to what extent is he simply still repeating what Merlyn has taught him?
Answer: The end of the novel describes Arthur’s personal beliefs and individual thoughts about war and justice, one of the few times that White lets us see what Arthur is thinking. For the most part, even in Book I, Arthur’s inner needs, thoughts, and concerns remain mysterious, and it is hard to gauge his commitment to his principles. Throughout the novel, we hear him repeat Merlyn’s ideas and beliefs about government and power, and once Nimue captures Merlyn, Arthur’s beliefs no longer develop. It would appear that Arthur is unable to generate ideas without the help of his mentor, but in Book IV, Arthur does arrive at some original conclusions. For example, he concludes that national boundaries are the source of conflicts and that if they could be abolished, war would disappear as well. This idea about the nature of conflict seems to be his own, which suggests that Arthur does finally learn to think for himself. Unfortunately, however, Arthur’s timing is poor. Now that he has developed his own ideas, he will die the next day. Even if he were not to die, he would still be too powerless to implement any of his ideas. The futility of his situation undermines the significance of his last thoughts.
Essay Topic Suggestions:
1. Lancelot is a complex character, torn between cruelty and compassion. Discuss how such conflicts affect Lancelot’s relationships with Guenever, Arthur, God, and chivalry.
2. The Wart has numerous adventures when Merlyn changes him into the form of animals, but only five of them are described in detail: his transformations into a perch, a merlin, a badger, an ant, and a goose. Briefly discuss the relevance each of these episodes has to the idea of might versus right and the development of Arthur’s thoughts about civilization and government.
3. White wrote The Once and Future King in the form of numerous short, episodic chapters. Discuss the effect of this format on the pacing, plot, and character development of the novel.
4. The novel generally presents an antiwar message, but nevertheless draws a great deal of dramatic power from the conflict inherent in warfare. Is the novel’s attitude toward war consistent, or does White contradict himself by glorifying battles?
Key Facts full title · The Once and Future King author · T. H. (Terence Hanbury) White type of work · Novel genre · Fantasy; heroic epic; satire language · English time and place written · England; 1936–1958 date of first publication · 1958. The four books that make up the novel were previously published separately: “The Sword in the Stone” in 1938; “The Queen of Air and Darkness” (published as The Witch in the Wood) in 1939; “The Ill-Made Knight” in 1940; and “The Candle in the Wind” in 1958. publisher · G. P. Putnam’s Sons narrator · The narrator speaks in the third person and is omniscient, or all-knowing. The narrator has access to the thoughts of all the characters and provides commentary on the context of the work, as in the references to Adolf Hitler, Uncle Sam, and Sir Thomas Malory. point of view · In general, the novel oscillates among the points of view of Arthur, Lancelot, and Guenever, though it occasionally assumes the point of view of minor characters such as Elaine and Gawaine. tone · The tone changes throughout the four books of the novel. It is playful and satirical in the first book, but gradually grows darker and more serious tense · Past setting (time) · The era of King Arthur, a legendary figure in the folklore of medieval England setting (place) · Medieval England and France protagonist · Arthur, who is called the Wart in Book I, is the protagonist of most of the novel, but Lancelot is the protagonist of the third book. major conflict · Arthur struggles to transform feudal England into a civilized country in which strength does not overwhelm justice. rising action · Lancelot’s destructive love affair with Guenever; the jealous conspiracies of the Orkney faction; Arthur’s incestuous affair with Morgause climax · Because the novel is episodic in form, each of its books comes to its own minor climax: in Book I, Arthur’s becoming king; in Book II, Morgause’s seduction of Arthur; in Book III, the blossoming of Lancelot and Guenever’s affair; and in Book IV, the exposing of Lancelot and Guenever’s affair. falling action · Arthur wages war against Lancelot; Mordred seizes power in England themes · The relationship between force and justice; the senselessness of war; the frivolity of knighthood motifs · Myths and legends; blood sports; castles symbols · The Round Table; the Questing Beast; the Holy Grail foreshadowing · Merlyn’s frequent comments about Arthur’s future and death hint at the destruction of Camelot and the demise of Arthur’s reign, which is the most prominent subject of foreshadowing in the novel.
Arthur: Arthur, the king of England, grew up the adopted son of a minor nobleman. No one knew he was the rightful king until he met Merlyn, (a magician who became his advisor and friend), and pulled a famous sword from a stone. He was always a kind and just person, and when he grew up married the beautiful Guenever. His central difficulty comes up when his wife falls in love with his best friend, Lancelot. He must figure out how to be just without punishing them-something he wants to avoid because he loves them both. He remains kind, thoughtful and humble, despite being very powerful. He created his 'Round Table' of knights in order to have a just, organized legal system. |
Merlyn: Like Uncle Dap for Lancelot, Merlyn is Arthur's advisor, mentor and friend, both hot-headed and loving toward the boy and later, King. He takes Arthur on many adventures, helping him realize how special he is, but never forgets to teach the boy kindness and thoughtfulness as well. He tries to help Arthur whenever he can, warning him of Lancelot's affair with Guenever, but never really plays the role of 'wise old man'-he gets himself tangled up in with a beautiful and deceitful woman, Nimue, and is often absent-minded.
Gawaine: Gawaine, though hot-headed, is perhaps the most mature of all his brothers. He remains loyal to Arthur in his mind, to the end, but his passionate loyalty is to his family, and he often creates more trouble by avenging them. He desperately wants everyone to follow a chivalric code, to the point that, when he fights Lancelot and Lancelot beats but spares him, Gawaine begs him to kill him, because he believes the fight should be to the death.
Guenever: Arthur's wife. Guenever loves her husband, but his best friend Lancelot is really the love of her life. Nevertheless, she does not leave Arthur, and cares for him deeply. It is her inability to forget Lancelot for the good of the kingdom that gives Arthur's enemies an angle: eventually, they demand that he prosecute her and Lancelot for treason. She is a warm-hearted, strong, independent and very beautiful woman. She thus feels at ease in the presence of Arthur's sometimes-wild knights.
Mordred: The son of Arthur and his half-sister, Morgause (who tricked Arthur into sleeping with her.) Mordred is much younger than the half-brothers he grows up with. He is also ugly, and his mother alternately is nice to him so that he'll do what she wants, and then ignores him. He always feels out of place and unwanted, and this makes him angry. He hates himself, so he takes it out on everyone else, especially his father. He particularly hates Arthur because he is jealous of him (Arthur is a good man who is well-loved) and because Arthur refuses to reject him: this makes Mordred even angrier. He decides to punish the King by forcing him to acknowledge that Guenever and Lancelot are having an affair. It is essentially his jealousy that brings down Camelot.
Lancelot: Arthur's best friend and best knight, and Queen Guenever's lover. Though he is extremely pious and well-loved and skilled at his work, he feels a vague self-hatred which is never explained. This is made worse when he falls hopelessly in love with Guenever, since he loves and admires Arthur so much. He hates what he is doing but cannot stop. Like Arthur, he feels a strong sense of propriety and justice and duty, even when others do not give him the same treatment.
Minor Characters
Kay: Kay is Arthur's brother, the son of Sir Ector, who adopted Arthur as a baby. Kay is a bit older and enjoys bullying Arthur, calling him 'Wart.' He is the first in a long series of people in Arthur's life who attack him because he is good or special and they are jealous.
Sir Ector: A kindly man who cares for Arthur as if he were his own son, Sir Ector teaches Arthur to treat people well. He takes Arthur into his home as a baby when Merlyn, disguised, brings him there, even though he has no idea Arthur will grow up to be the King of England.
Archimedes: Though gruff, Archimedes, Merlyn's companion owl, truly cares about Arthur and contributes to his education by teaching him about birds.
Lyo-Lyok: A friendly, noble goose, she teaches Arthur that not everyone views life as a quest for power. She is shocked at the idea of war, and Arthur, a young boy interested in becoming a knight, begins to reconsider.
Agravaine: The cruel, bullying member of the Orkney family. He has no real ambition, but merely enjoys hurting people. He is in love with his mother, and kills her out of jealousy. He becomes an alcoholic and dies while trying a surprise attack on Lancelot.
Gareth: The kindest, most sensitive member of the Orkneys. He has a strong sense of right and wrong and always seems like the baby of the family, which is why everyone at court is fond of him.
Gaheris: A quiet, subservient child, Gaheris grows up into someone without much will of his own: he is basically good, but depends often on others for his opinions.
Morgause: Perhaps the major source of tragedy in the book, Morgause uses everyone she can to further her own schemes. She encourages her children to depend on her, then abandons them. She seduces Arthur, and routinely cheats on her husband. She is beautiful, and uses that beauty to get her way.
Uncle Dap: Dap, Lancelot's uncle, has an old-fashioned, blustery manner that opposes Lancelot's solemn sadness almost perfectly. Dap has fits of rage and frustration over his nephew and student: he works himself up yelling bizarre curses like 'By God's teeth!' But he is never angry for long, and he clearly loves Lancelot. He also shares a love of traditional chivalry with his nephew: a master swordsmith, he creates Lancelot's famous sword, Joyeux. When he realizes Lancelot is falling in love with Guenever, he is more concerned about what this might do to Lancelot's jousting career than about its effect on, for example, his friendship with Arthur.
Elaine: Elaine's love for Lancelot contrasts with that of Guenever. Elaine is younger, and loves him the way one might love a movie star: her love comes from awe, not from understanding. She uses underhanded tricks to get what she wants, and when Lancelot leaves her, her character is too weak to recover. She grows fat and pathetic, and eventually kills herself.
Galahad: The son of Lancelot and Elaine, and a perfect, pious, holy knight. Lancelot is jealous of him because he is the world's best knight--a title Lancelot himself used to hold--and because he can achieve the Holy Grail, which Lancelot is too impure to do.
Meliagrance: Though not very important in his own right, Meliagrance sets the stage for attacks on the Queen. He is the reason Mordred realizes he can attack Arthur through Lancelot and Guenever.
Tom: The young knight who will tell Arthur's story, Tom Malory is a fictional version of the real Sir Thomas Malory, who wrote Le Morte D'Arthur, on which much of The Once and Future King is based.
Young "Wart" is the adopted son of a minor nobleman when he meets Merlyn, a kindly magician, who takes him on many adventures, turning him into several different animals and teaching him skills, both mental and physical. Wart is very happy and learns to treat people with respect and kindness. Soon after ,Wart pulls a magical sword from a stone, which proves him to be the rightful king of England (his real father was the recently dead King.) Merlyn, who knew this from the start, advises Wart-now called Arthur-on how to be a good king. What Arthur really wants to do is end chaos that passes for law in his country. He wants his men-the knights of the round table-to help defenseless people and prevent the rich and strong from simply …show more content…
dominating everyone. Many young knights love the idea and admire Arthur. Lancelot, who becomes the best knight in the world, and Arthur's best friend, still wrestles with self-doubt. Soon after he comes to court, he falls in love with Arthur's wife, Guenever. Arthur knows they are having an affair subconsciously, but he wants to pretend it isn't happening, so the three are able to live in relative harmony for many years.
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Arthur builds the Round Table into a predictable form of justice. Other prominent knights include the brothers of the Orkney clan, sons of the witch Morgause, Arthur's half-sister. Their names are Gawaine, Gaheris, Agravaine, Gareth and Mordred. These men are close-knit and hot-tempered. They love Arthur but come from a family that has always hated England, and the youngest, Mordred, is in a dangerous position. He is actually the son of Arthur and Morgause (she seduced her half-brother when he was young and vulnerable.) Since he is younger and has a different father from his brothers, Mordred feels out of place and hated by everyone around him, and he is angry and looking for revenge. Since Guenever has never had children, Mordred is Arthur's only offspring and therefore could become king if he can upset the court. He sees his chance with Guenever and Lancelot.
Mordred knows that because Arthur is just, he will not be able to avoid punishing an illegal act (adultery and treason), even if it involves his best friends. Though both Lancelot and Guenever love Arthur, they themselves are so in love that they cannot stay apart. Lancelot is tormented by guilt, always trying to do the right thing, believing that he must punish himself, but never finding the strength to end the affair. Finally, Mordred forces Arthur to recognize their affair, and once it is recognized, Arthur has no choice but to prosecute his wife and his best friend. The court begins to crumble as everyone is forced to take sides. Arthur's peaceful vision is undermined by Mordred's schemes. Lancelot kills Gareth, Gaheris and Agravaine, only because he has to, but Mordred convinces Gawaine it is because Lancelot has always hated their family. Gawaine swears he will never forgive Lancelot and makes sure Arthur will not either. Arthur leaves the castle, forced to fight Lancelot in France, and Mordred convinces the public he is dead, forcing Guenever to accept his marriage proposal.
At this point Arthur is very old, but he still remembers his original vision of brotherhood, for a time realized with the Round Table. Listening to the sounds of warfare outside, he brings in a young boy and tells him his story, so that it will not be forgotten. Arthur recognizes that he must die and is at peace with this, knowing that his ideas for law and justice will return. The story pulls backward, explaining that each person's fate is one drop in the ocean of life. Lancelot and Guenever become a priest and nun, and Mordred is killed. But the vision lives on: Arthur is the "once and future king.
Chapter 1: Arthur, or "Wart," as his bullying brother Kay has nicknamed him, is a young boy of about ten growing up in a small castle near a forest in Medieval England.
Arthur Was an Adopted Child. The Relationship Between Force and Justice
One of White’s most radical departures from previous versions of the King Arthur legend is the way he describes Arthur’s character. Previous versions of the story, including Sir Thomas Malory’s, tend to glorify Arthur as a great hero in conventional terms of military glory and valorous deeds, but White presents Arthur as a political innovator. White implies that Arthur is a great king not because of his strength on the battlefield, but because of his success at translating Merlyn’s morals into a just system of governance.
White’s main interest in this area, which he shows throughout the novel, is the relationship between strength and justice, which Arthur calls might and right. The medieval England of Arthur’s youth is unable to distinguish between might and right, and strength becomes its own justification. Whatever might does is considered to be right in this society. White’s negative view of this attitude is evident in his biting satire of medieval knights in the early chapters of the novel. From the Wart’s early experiences with the warlike ants, the peaceful geese, the power-hungry pike, and the wise badger, he learns alternatives to the notion that might equals right. Arthur then tries to institute these alternative ideas throughout England. White implies that modern and progressive civilizations are based on the idea of using force to create and maintain a just political system. Arthur is successful because he creates a more civilized England. Eventually, however, Arthur’s hard work is undone by internal tensions and by Mordred’s treachery. This turn of events suggests that as long as justice depends on force, it will face obstacles and setbacks.
The Role of War in Medieval England
Arthur’s England, particularly during the early part of his reign, is dominated by various forces competing for political prominence.
Therefore, war is inevitable, and war emerges as one of the major themes of The Once and Future King. But White presents war as an inexcusable barbarism, a pointless and ugly tragedy. Merlyn tells Arthur that the only time the use of force is justified is for self-defense.
The novel maintains an antiwar stance partly to challenge the important role that war plays in the rest of the Arthurian canon. Unlike in other classic Arthurian texts, the battle scenes in White’s novel are few and not terribly graphic. In the few battle that are in the novel, White satirizes knighthood and emphasizes the bloodshed and carnage that necessarily accompanies war. White underscores this point with the lessons that the Wart learns during his tutelage. In the Wart’s adventures in the animal kingdom among the fish, ants, and geese, he develops a sense that war is essentially unnatural. The only animals that practice war as a matter of course are the ants, and they seem more like robots than living beings. By the time Arthur becomes king, he has begun to understand how to see through the myths that glorify war and to understand the injustice of using might to make right. For instance, at the beginning of “The Queen of Air and Darkness,” the novel’s second book, Arthur realizes that knights on a battlefield are essentially bullies, hiding in suits of heavy armor as they slaughter the defenseless and
innocent.
The Frivolity of Knighthood
The engine of war in Arthur’s England is kept operational by knights, the legendary soldiers of the Middle Ages. The knights are the might half of the might-versus-right conundrum that Arthur is trying to solve, and they serve as protectors of Camelot’s moral codes. Nonetheless, because knights rely on muscle instead of morals, the novel examines them in much the same way it examines war. White often depicts knights as oafish clowns, in contrast to their portrayal as heroes and romantic figures in earlier interpretations of the King Arthur legend.
White also illustrates the tension between the brutal violence of knightly behavior and the elaborate codes of morality and courtesy that knights must follow to maintain their honor. This hidden tension between violence and chivalry is best embodied in the figure of Lancelot. He seems to be an almost unrealistic character, as he encounters so much death and violence without ever losing his commitment to honor. However, we know that emotionally, Lancelot is more insecure and uncertain about his honor than any other knight. White’s more humanized portrayal of knights undermines our ideas about the mythical warriors and warns us against idealizing them. These men cannot live up to the expectations of being both strong knights and pious men, and as a result, Camelot and the order of knighthood break down. The Once and Future King relies heavily on a variety of myths and legends to tell its story. Most notably, the entire novel is a reworking of the Arthur myth. White continually acknowledges that he is modernizing old stories by referring specifically to his sources. For example, the novel contains many asides about Sir Thomas Malory, quoting passages and pieces of dialogue from his fifteenth-century Le Morte d’Arthur. Malory even appears as a young page at the end of the novel. White flips the Arthurian legend around by constantly calling attention to the fact that his story has a precedent and by then exposing that precedent’s flaws. At times, it seems as if White is interested in debunking the validity of knighthood and also attacking the myths and legends that have romanticized knighthood for so long.
Blood Sports
White expresses the conflict between the brutality and courtesy of knightood by making frequent reference to blood sports, such as hunting and hawking. Like knightly warfare, blood sports are motivated by aggression and involve a great deal of brutality. But, like the code of chivalry, blood sports also involve a great deal of tradition and ritual. The Wart’s studying, for example, of the “etiquette of hunting” shows that blood sports are governed by a code of etiquette as strict as the one imposed on the bloody business of jousting. Like warfare, therefore, the blood sports in the novel boast a civilized veneer that masks their violent underpinnings.
Castles
Each of the different books in The Once and Future King revolves around a select few settings, and each of these settings is represented by a single castle that has a unique character. In “The Sword and the Stone,” for example, Arthur’s home is represented by Sir Ector’s Castle of the Forest Sauvage, a cozy place with a seemingly endless number of nooks and crannies for us to explore along with the Wart. Sir Ector’s castle is markedly different, however, from the glorious Camelot or the gloomy castle at Orkney. The castles in the novel have their own personalities that embody the hopes and fears of their inhabitants. Their heavily fortified walls vividly illustrate the separation between the novel’s worlds. When Uncle Dap finds Lancelot after his madness, for example, he refuses to enter Castle Bliant. He sits outside its wall, waiting to take Lancelot back to the intrigue of Camelot and Guenever and to leave behind the relatively banal world in which Elaine lives.
Symbols
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
The Round Table
Arthur conceives of the Round Table in “The Queen of Air and Darkness” around the same time that he has his epiphany about might and right. Throughout the rest of the novel, the Round Table is a physical manifestation of Arthur’s sense of fairness and justice. The table is designed so that the king’s knights will not squabble over rank—there is no head of the table for the best knight to claim as his own. Arthur does not want to create conflicts among knights because he wants them unified in their struggle to maintain peace in England. Even though Arthur’s knights show a wide variety of temperaments and frequently scatter across the country, the Round Table holds them together and gives them the name for their order. Therefore, the Round Table is a vital part of Arthur’s attempts to subjugate force to justice. It is the focal point of Arthur’s war for justice—by not allowing any one knight to gain status over any other, it comes to symbolize the very concepts it has been created to defend.
The Questing Beast
The Questing Beast represents the absurdity of knightly quests and serves as White’s way to deflate the notion of the quest as the route to knightly glory. King Pellinore has no real reason for wanting to catch the Questing Beast—which is not a threat to anyone—and yet he dedicates his entire youth to the project. Remarkably, none of the other knights ever thinks to question Pellinore’s dedication, and in their minds, as in his, the quest gives him a purpose. If Pellinore caught the Questing Beast, he would lose the activity that gives his life meaning, and when he has the chance to kill it, he chooses to help the beast instead. Once Pellinore finds real purpose in his love for his beloved wife, however, he forgets about the beast, reinforcing the idea that the Questing Beast is not meaningful in itself but is rather merely something to keep Pellinore occupied.
The Holy Grail
The Holy Grail, a copper cup or platter used by Jesus at the Last Supper, represents an otherworldly power that even Arthur’s knights are incapable of achieving. To find the Grail requires, in addition to knightly prowess, a purity of mind and soul that seems almost contradictory to the ideals of chivalry. The Holy Grail, therefore, symbolizes all that Arthur has not achieved. This revelation that Arthur’s England is far from a state of grace also marks the beginning of the end of his reign. 1. The tone of Book I is drastically different from the tone of Book IV. Book I is lighthearted and leisurely, whereas Book IV is tragic and fast paced. In your view, how do these two books come together? Which themes and elements of style connect them?
Answer: The two books between the Book I and Book IV provide a bridge from the lightheartedness of the Wart’s adventures in the Forest Sauvage to King Arthur’s final despair. This transition is enormous but gradual. In Book II, the world of Orkney is grim, but this grimness is offset by the antics of Sir Pellinore, Sir Grummore, and Sir Palomides. In Book III, the tone becomes darker, but the book also has a triumphant tone during the narration of Lancelot’s adventures.
While the tone drastically changes from Book I to Book IV, the themes and ideas expressed in these two books are similar. King Arthur, a simpleminded and optimistic man in Book IV, still has the childhood naïveté he shows in Book I. Also, the frivolity of knighthood appears in the first and last books. For example, King Pellinore’s refusal to kill his beloved Questing Beast is as pointless and silly a gesture as the trials by combat that appear in the fourth book. White also continues to point to the future in both books with his insinuations that Arthur’s reign will not last. 2. The quest for the Holy Grail is a central part of the Arthurian legend, but it gets only seven short chapters in Book III of The Once and Future King. What is the relevance of the quest to the idea of might versus right? Answer: The quest for the Holy Grail is Arthur’s attempt to get his knights to use their aggression productively. Once the knights have no more good deeds or chivalric acts to perform, they do not know what to do with their power. Arthur wants the restless knights to fight for a noble cause and therefore assigns them to fight for God. The quest is successful in that it occupies the knights for some time and even achieves its goal when the pious Sir Galahad finds the Holy Grail. The quest for the Holy Grail, however, has disastrous effects on Arthur’s court. Half of the knights are killed during the quest, and those who succeed on the quest disappear because they have reached perfection. The few knights who return unharmed do not seem to have learned anything from their adventure and are upset over the loss of their comrades. After the quest, the surviving knights are still just as bloodthirsty as they were when they started the quest, and they are certainly no holier or closer to God.
White does not focus on the quest for the Holy Grail in his novel in part because it is a detour in Arthur’s progress toward justice as the basis of civilization. Like Arthur’s attempt to use war on behalf of justice, the quest for the Holy Grail is his attempt to use war to serve God. Only later does Arthur realize that this goal asks too much, since it requires people to abandon their bad side instead of using it productively. 3. Most of Arthur’s conclusions about might and right come from Merlyn. To what extent do you think Arthur learns to think for himself by the end of the novel and to what extent is he simply still repeating what Merlyn has taught him?
Answer: The end of the novel describes Arthur’s personal beliefs and individual thoughts about war and justice, one of the few times that White lets us see what Arthur is thinking. For the most part, even in Book I, Arthur’s inner needs, thoughts, and concerns remain mysterious, and it is hard to gauge his commitment to his principles. Throughout the novel, we hear him repeat Merlyn’s ideas and beliefs about government and power, and once Nimue captures Merlyn, Arthur’s beliefs no longer develop. It would appear that Arthur is unable to generate ideas without the help of his mentor, but in Book IV, Arthur does arrive at some original conclusions. For example, he concludes that national boundaries are the source of conflicts and that if they could be abolished, war would disappear as well. This idea about the nature of conflict seems to be his own, which suggests that Arthur does finally learn to think for himself. Unfortunately, however, Arthur’s timing is poor. Now that he has developed his own ideas, he will die the next day. Even if he were not to die, he would still be too powerless to implement any of his ideas. The futility of his situation undermines the significance of his last thoughts.
Essay Topic Suggestions:
1. Lancelot is a complex character, torn between cruelty and compassion. Discuss how such conflicts affect Lancelot’s relationships with Guenever, Arthur, God, and chivalry.
2. The Wart has numerous adventures when Merlyn changes him into the form of animals, but only five of them are described in detail: his transformations into a perch, a merlin, a badger, an ant, and a goose. Briefly discuss the relevance each of these episodes has to the idea of might versus right and the development of Arthur’s thoughts about civilization and government.
3. White wrote The Once and Future King in the form of numerous short, episodic chapters. Discuss the effect of this format on the pacing, plot, and character development of the novel.
4. The novel generally presents an antiwar message, but nevertheless draws a great deal of dramatic power from the conflict inherent in warfare. Is the novel’s attitude toward war consistent, or does White contradict himself by glorifying battles?
Key Facts full title · The Once and Future King author · T. H. (Terence Hanbury) White type of work · Novel genre · Fantasy; heroic epic; satire language · English time and place written · England; 1936–1958 date of first publication · 1958. The four books that make up the novel were previously published separately: “The Sword in the Stone” in 1938; “The Queen of Air and Darkness” (published as The Witch in the Wood) in 1939; “The Ill-Made Knight” in 1940; and “The Candle in the Wind” in 1958. publisher · G. P. Putnam’s Sons narrator · The narrator speaks in the third person and is omniscient, or all-knowing. The narrator has access to the thoughts of all the characters and provides commentary on the context of the work, as in the references to Adolf Hitler, Uncle Sam, and Sir Thomas Malory. point of view · In general, the novel oscillates among the points of view of Arthur, Lancelot, and Guenever, though it occasionally assumes the point of view of minor characters such as Elaine and Gawaine. tone · The tone changes throughout the four books of the novel. It is playful and satirical in the first book, but gradually grows darker and more serious tense · Past setting (time) · The era of King Arthur, a legendary figure in the folklore of medieval England setting (place) · Medieval England and France protagonist · Arthur, who is called the Wart in Book I, is the protagonist of most of the novel, but Lancelot is the protagonist of the third book. major conflict · Arthur struggles to transform feudal England into a civilized country in which strength does not overwhelm justice. rising action · Lancelot’s destructive love affair with Guenever; the jealous conspiracies of the Orkney faction; Arthur’s incestuous affair with Morgause climax · Because the novel is episodic in form, each of its books comes to its own minor climax: in Book I, Arthur’s becoming king; in Book II, Morgause’s seduction of Arthur; in Book III, the blossoming of Lancelot and Guenever’s affair; and in Book IV, the exposing of Lancelot and Guenever’s affair. falling action · Arthur wages war against Lancelot; Mordred seizes power in England themes · The relationship between force and justice; the senselessness of war; the frivolity of knighthood motifs · Myths and legends; blood sports; castles symbols · The Round Table; the Questing Beast; the Holy Grail foreshadowing · Merlyn’s frequent comments about Arthur’s future and death hint at the destruction of Camelot and the demise of Arthur’s reign, which is the most prominent subject of foreshadowing in the novel.
Arthur: Arthur, the king of England, grew up the adopted son of a minor nobleman. No one knew he was the rightful king until he met Merlyn, (a magician who became his advisor and friend), and pulled a famous sword from a stone. He was always a kind and just person, and when he grew up married the beautiful Guenever. His central difficulty comes up when his wife falls in love with his best friend, Lancelot. He must figure out how to be just without punishing them-something he wants to avoid because he loves them both. He remains kind, thoughtful and humble, despite being very powerful. He created his 'Round Table' of knights in order to have a just, organized legal system. |
Merlyn: Like Uncle Dap for Lancelot, Merlyn is Arthur's advisor, mentor and friend, both hot-headed and loving toward the boy and later, King. He takes Arthur on many adventures, helping him realize how special he is, but never forgets to teach the boy kindness and thoughtfulness as well. He tries to help Arthur whenever he can, warning him of Lancelot's affair with Guenever, but never really plays the role of 'wise old man'-he gets himself tangled up in with a beautiful and deceitful woman, Nimue, and is often absent-minded.
Gawaine: Gawaine, though hot-headed, is perhaps the most mature of all his brothers. He remains loyal to Arthur in his mind, to the end, but his passionate loyalty is to his family, and he often creates more trouble by avenging them. He desperately wants everyone to follow a chivalric code, to the point that, when he fights Lancelot and Lancelot beats but spares him, Gawaine begs him to kill him, because he believes the fight should be to the death.
Guenever: Arthur's wife. Guenever loves her husband, but his best friend Lancelot is really the love of her life. Nevertheless, she does not leave Arthur, and cares for him deeply. It is her inability to forget Lancelot for the good of the kingdom that gives Arthur's enemies an angle: eventually, they demand that he prosecute her and Lancelot for treason. She is a warm-hearted, strong, independent and very beautiful woman. She thus feels at ease in the presence of Arthur's sometimes-wild knights.
Mordred: The son of Arthur and his half-sister, Morgause (who tricked Arthur into sleeping with her.) Mordred is much younger than the half-brothers he grows up with. He is also ugly, and his mother alternately is nice to him so that he'll do what she wants, and then ignores him. He always feels out of place and unwanted, and this makes him angry. He hates himself, so he takes it out on everyone else, especially his father. He particularly hates Arthur because he is jealous of him (Arthur is a good man who is well-loved) and because Arthur refuses to reject him: this makes Mordred even angrier. He decides to punish the King by forcing him to acknowledge that Guenever and Lancelot are having an affair. It is essentially his jealousy that brings down Camelot.
Lancelot: Arthur's best friend and best knight, and Queen Guenever's lover. Though he is extremely pious and well-loved and skilled at his work, he feels a vague self-hatred which is never explained. This is made worse when he falls hopelessly in love with Guenever, since he loves and admires Arthur so much. He hates what he is doing but cannot stop. Like Arthur, he feels a strong sense of propriety and justice and duty, even when others do not give him the same treatment.
Minor Characters
Kay: Kay is Arthur's brother, the son of Sir Ector, who adopted Arthur as a baby. Kay is a bit older and enjoys bullying Arthur, calling him 'Wart.' He is the first in a long series of people in Arthur's life who attack him because he is good or special and they are jealous.
Sir Ector: A kindly man who cares for Arthur as if he were his own son, Sir Ector teaches Arthur to treat people well. He takes Arthur into his home as a baby when Merlyn, disguised, brings him there, even though he has no idea Arthur will grow up to be the King of England.
Archimedes: Though gruff, Archimedes, Merlyn's companion owl, truly cares about Arthur and contributes to his education by teaching him about birds.
Lyo-Lyok: A friendly, noble goose, she teaches Arthur that not everyone views life as a quest for power. She is shocked at the idea of war, and Arthur, a young boy interested in becoming a knight, begins to reconsider.
Agravaine: The cruel, bullying member of the Orkney family. He has no real ambition, but merely enjoys hurting people. He is in love with his mother, and kills her out of jealousy. He becomes an alcoholic and dies while trying a surprise attack on Lancelot.
Gareth: The kindest, most sensitive member of the Orkneys. He has a strong sense of right and wrong and always seems like the baby of the family, which is why everyone at court is fond of him.
Gaheris: A quiet, subservient child, Gaheris grows up into someone without much will of his own: he is basically good, but depends often on others for his opinions.
Morgause: Perhaps the major source of tragedy in the book, Morgause uses everyone she can to further her own schemes. She encourages her children to depend on her, then abandons them. She seduces Arthur, and routinely cheats on her husband. She is beautiful, and uses that beauty to get her way.
Uncle Dap: Dap, Lancelot's uncle, has an old-fashioned, blustery manner that opposes Lancelot's solemn sadness almost perfectly. Dap has fits of rage and frustration over his nephew and student: he works himself up yelling bizarre curses like 'By God's teeth!' But he is never angry for long, and he clearly loves Lancelot. He also shares a love of traditional chivalry with his nephew: a master swordsmith, he creates Lancelot's famous sword, Joyeux. When he realizes Lancelot is falling in love with Guenever, he is more concerned about what this might do to Lancelot's jousting career than about its effect on, for example, his friendship with Arthur.
Elaine: Elaine's love for Lancelot contrasts with that of Guenever. Elaine is younger, and loves him the way one might love a movie star: her love comes from awe, not from understanding. She uses underhanded tricks to get what she wants, and when Lancelot leaves her, her character is too weak to recover. She grows fat and pathetic, and eventually kills herself.
Galahad: The son of Lancelot and Elaine, and a perfect, pious, holy knight. Lancelot is jealous of him because he is the world's best knight--a title Lancelot himself used to hold--and because he can achieve the Holy Grail, which Lancelot is too impure to do.
Meliagrance: Though not very important in his own right, Meliagrance sets the stage for attacks on the Queen. He is the reason Mordred realizes he can attack Arthur through Lancelot and Guenever.
Tom: The young knight who will tell Arthur's story, Tom Malory is a fictional version of the real Sir Thomas Malory, who wrote Le Morte D'Arthur, on which much of The Once and Future King is based.