Explorations in Arthurian Legends
A Literature Review
Part 8: T.H. White
T.H. White's The Once and Future King is easily the most accessible Arthurian work of the 20th century. It appeals to audiences of all ages and to readers on many different levels. Its use of humor and anachronistic references help ground the reader in the subject matter in a way that no one before or since has accomplished.
The Once and Future King is a tetralogy consisting of four previously published works: The Sword in the Stone, The Queen of Air and Darkness, The Ill-Made Knight, and The Candle in the Wind.
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In the first book, we see Arthur's education at the hands of Merlyn, a learned but frazzled character who is living backwards. (Thus, he already knows what's going to happen; he strives, therefore, to impart on his subject the importance of doing right.) Arthur is here called the Wart, a nickname given him by his foster brother, Kay, son of Sir Ector, lord of a castle in the Forest Sauvage. As a student of Merlyn, Wart encounters three different kinds of governments feudalism in his daily life with Ector, totalitarianism in his time as an ant, and anarchy in his time as a goose. As always, Merlyn's point is that knowledge is power. One of the prime lessons of this education is that a goose (or any winged animal) can see beyond boundaries on land. In other words, a man's worth is not only based on how much land and property he has; also, a government is not nearly as important as its leader. Wart's adventures continue with Merlyn and with Kay until the fateful day of the tourney, at which Wart pulls the Sword from the Stone. |
Overall, the book has a different feel from other Arthurian tellings. These books have humor, chiefly in the form of Merlyn and of King Pellinore, whose efforts in hunting the Questing Beast and at fighting Sir Grummore Grummersom are shot through with gentle and broad humor.
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Finally, there is the theme of war. White, a pacifist, fills his hero, Arthur, with a war-weariness and a determination to do what is right: "Might for Right." From the very beginning, Arthur has to fight to keep what he has earned. He fends off challenges from Lot and from outsiders; he tries to keep his Round Table intact in the face of a serious challenge from Mordred and the sons of Orkney; he tries to keep his kingdom intact by fighting for his very life against Mordred and his growing number of allies. He fights, fights, fights. His tone at the end of the fourth book, in the chat with young Tom, is one of acceptance of his fate. However, even weighed down by the knowledge of certain death, he finds the strength to encourage young Tom to survive the battle and tell the story. Now, since The Once and Future King ends on the eve of the Battle of Camlann, the book has no mention of what eventually happened to Arthur. T.H. White wrote The Book of Merlyn to tell that story. Left out of the set by the publishers, this book was published in its own right several years later. In it, Merlyn returns to Arthur and returns Arthur to happier days, when he visited the ants and geese and came face to face with the war-crazed ants and the happy-go-lucky geese. Buoyed by this return to the innocence of his youth, Arthur intends to ask Mordred for a truce. But fate intervenes: Echoing Malory, White has a snake cause the fateful, final battle. We see the end of Arthur and of Lancelot and Guinevere. We see the end of an era. But we see the future, too, and it is filled with hope. |
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This condemnation of the evils of war is a vast departure from the Welsh war songs that began the story of Arthur. As the 20th century winds down, we see many more departures from the common theme. Two of the greatest and most successful departures are written by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Mary Stewart.
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England Have My Bones the definitive T.H. White site An Essay on The Once and Future King |
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