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The Once and Future King


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The Once and Future King is an Arthurian fantasy novel written by T. H. White. It was first published in 1958 and is mostly a composite of earlier works written between 1938 and 1941. The central theme is an exploration of human nature regarding power and justice, as the boy Arthur becomes king and attempts to quell the prevalent "might makes right" attitude with his idea of chivalry. But in the end, even chivalry comes undone since its justice is maintained by force. The title comes from the inscription that, according to Le Morte d'Arthur, was said by "many men" to be written upon King Arthur's tomb: the internally rhymed hexameter Hic iacet Arthurus, rex quondam, rexque futurus "Here lies Arthur, king once, and king to be".[1]
Contents [hide] 1 Plot introduction 2 Plot 3 Characterization in the work 4 Reception 5 Film, television, and theatrical adaptations 5.1 Other references 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

The Once and Future King

Plot introduction

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Most of the book "takes place on the isle of Gramarye", and it chronicles the raising and educating of King Arthur, his rule as a king, and the romance between Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevre. It ends immediately before 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 reinterprets the epic events, filling them with renewed meaning for a world recovering from World War II. The book is divided into four parts:

First edition cover Author T. H. White Country United Kingdom Language English Genre Fantasy, Novel Publisher Collins Publication 1958 date Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback) OCLC 35661057 Dewey Decimal 823/.912 21 LC Class PR6045.H2 O5 1996

The Sword in the Stone (1938) The Queen of Air and Darkness (1939) (published separately in somewhat different form as The Witch in the Wood) The Ill-Made Knight (1940) (which is the longest book and focuses mostly on the character Lancelot) The Candle in the Wind (first published in the composite edition, 1958) A final part called The Book of Merlin (written 1941, published 1977) was published separately (ISBN 0-292-70769-X) following White's death. It chronicles Arthur's final lessons from Merlin before his death, although some parts of it were incorporated into the final editions of the previous books. An oft-quoted passage from the book is the story that the badger calls his "dissertation", a retelling of the Creation story from Genesis.

Plot

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The story starts in the last years of the rule of king Uther Pendragon. The first part, The Sword in the Stone, chronicles Arthur's upbringing by his foster father Sir Ector, his rivalry and friendship with his foster brother Kay, and his initial training by Merlin, a wizard who lives through time backwards. Merlin, knowing the boy's destiny, teaches Arthur (known as "Wart") what it means to be a good king by turning him into various kinds of animals: fish, hawk, ant, goose, and badger. Each of the transformations is meant to teach Wart a lesson, which will prepare him for his future life. In fact, Merlin instills in Arthur the concept that the only justifiable reason for war is to prevent another from going to war, and that contemporary human governments and powerful people exemplify the worst aspects of the rule of Might. Neither the ant nor goose episodes were in the original Sword in the Stone when it was published as a stand-alone book. The original novel also contains a battle between Merlin and sorceress Madam Mim that was not included in The Once and Future King but was included in the Disney film. In part two, 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, Merlin 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 Guinevere's forbidden love, the means they go through to hide their affair from the King (although he already knows of it from Merlin), and its effect on Elaine, Lancelot's sometime lover and the mother of his son Galahad.
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The Once and Future King - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

10.03.2014

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 Guinevre, Sir Lancelot, and the entire ideal kingdom of Camelot. The book begins as a quite light-hearted account of the young Arthur's adventures, and King Pellinore's interminable search for the Questing Beast. Parts of The Sword in the Stone read 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 changes tone until Ill-Made Knight becomes more meditative and The Candle in the Wind finds Arthur brooding over death and his legacy.

Characterization in the work

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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 evolves from a fallible but inquisitive and enthusiastic youth ("the Wart") to an individualized and psychologically complex man.[2] Lancelot is no longer the handsome knight typical in the romantic legends but is instead portrayed as the ugliest of that lot. He is also a sadist, a trait he represses, but which leads to bouts of self-loathing. He seeks to overcome his flaws through full devotion towards becoming Arthur's greatest knight. Merlin lives through time backwards, making him a bumbling yet wise old man who is getting younger. Sir Galahad is not well liked by many of the Knights as he is truly perfect to the point of being 'inhuman'. White allows Thomas Malory to have a cameo appearance towards the end of the final book. Also of note is his treatment of historical characters and kings as mythological within the world that he creates. In addition, due to his living backwards, Merlin makes many anachronistic allusions to events in more recent times; of note are references to World War II, telegraphs, tanks, and "an Austrian who plunged the civilized world into misery and chaos" (i.e. Adolf Hitler).[3]

Reception

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Fantasy historian Lin Carter wrote, "...the single finest fantasy novel written in our time, or for that matter, ever written, is, must be, by any conceivable standard, T. H. White's The Once and Future King. I can hardly imagine that any mature, literate person who has read the book would disagree with this estimate. White is a great writer."[4]

Film, television, and theatrical adaptations

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Although Walt Disney initially purchased the film rights to The Ill-Made Knight in 1944,[5] he eventually produced an adaptation of The Sword in the Stone, released in 1963. This movie reflects more the sense of humour of Disney's team of animators than White's. The movie adds a more comical side to the original story, including song and dance, as in most Walt Disney films. Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's 1960 musical Camelot (which was made into a movie in 1967) is based mostly on the last two books of The Once and Future King, and features White's idea of having Thomas Malory make a cameo appearance at the end, again as "Tom of Warwick".

Other references [edit]


In the Marvel Universe, the X-Men comics mention The Once and Future King several times, notably in the first issue of the "X-Tinction Agenda" story arc, which mentions that the book is Professor X's favorite, and that Xavier always saw himself as Merlin, the teacher guiding the hero(es), rather than as a hero himself. In the Ultimate X-Men comics, the book is a metaphor for Magneto, an extremely powerful mutant terrorist. This is carried over into the 2003 film X2: X-Men United, which begins one scene with Magneto reading the first edition of The Once and Future King in his prison cell. At the end of the film, Xavier is using the book as a teaching tool. One Tree Hill quotes the book in Episode 202. In a voiceover, Lucas Scott (Chad Michael Murray) says, "T. H. White said 'Perhaps we all give the best of our hearts uncritically, to those who hardly think about us in return'." In Rodman Philbrick's "Freak the Mighty", Max Kane and Kevin Dillon bond through the book; and, inspired by Dillon's fits of fancy, the two embark on a quest to embody the heroic qualities of King Arthur. In Bobby (2006) Edward Robinson (Laurence Fishburne) relates the novel's depiction of King Arthur to the selfless and chivalrous qualities of Jose Rojas (Freddy Rodriguez). The Magicians by Lev Grossman includes a long sequence where magicians-in-training are transformed into geese, a "direct and loving homage" to Wart's transformation in The Sword in the Stone.[6] George A. Romero's film Knightriders references The Once and Future King as the inspiration for a traveling Camelot of motorcycle-riding knights aspiring to the code of chivalry. The animated series Gargoyles references The Once and Future King when King Arthur is awakened in Avalon. The TV series Merlin talks about The Once and Future King throughout the series, the first time said by the Great Dragon to Merlin about his destiny.

See also

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Novels portal King Arthur portal

References

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1. ^ Sir Thomas Malory (1485). Le Morte d'Arthur. William Caxton. " " 2. ^ Spivack, Charlotte and Roberta Lynne Staples. The Company of Camelot: Arthurian Characters in Romance and Fantasy. Greenwood Press, 1994, p. 130. 3. ^ (White 266267) 4. ^ Carter, Lin (1973). Imaginary Worlds. Ballantine Books. p. 125. ISBN 0-345-03309-4.
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5. ^ http://efanzines.com/FWD/FWD37.htm 6. ^ Strange Horizons magazine, November 2009

External links

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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The Once
and Future King

The Book of Merlin title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database The Once and Future King Study Guide at Wikibooks NLS/BPH: Minibibliographies, The Once and Future King by T. H. White Essay: "The Importance of the Second World War to T.H. White's Once and Future King". 1958 review by Ken Slater
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Wikibooks has more on the topic of: The Once and Future King [show] [show]

T. H. White's The Once and Future King Fantasy

Categories: 1958 novels 1950s fantasy novels Modern Arthurian fiction British fantasy novels Novels by T. H. White William Collins, Sons books

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