The Once and Future King

T. H. White
The Once and Future King Cover

Epic, Brutal, and Funny

ScoLgo
12/16/2014
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Epic, brutal and funny. Brutally funny, really. Now I see where the Monty Python guys got their inspiration for their Holy Grail movie. The humour is similar in many ways. Python approached it with more silliness but the influence is undeniable. Of the four books, I enjoyed the first two the most.

Book 1: The Sword in the Stone; tells the story of Arthur's childhood and education by Merlyn, the absent-minded magician who is living his life backward in time. It culminates, rather hastily, with Arthur repeatedly pulling the sword out of the anvil to show that he is the new king.

Book 2: The Queen of Air and Darkness, (a.k.a. The Witch of the Wood); tells of Arthur's young adulthood where he conceives the Round Table, defeats King Lot to secure the kingdom, and is seduced by Morgause - thereby sowing the seeds of future ruin.

Book 3: The Ill-Made Knight; the longest book in the volume focuses more on the adventures of Lancelot and his illicit affair with Guenever. In this book, we begin to see less humour as the tone becomes more serious and the narrative veers toward the philosohical and tragic.

Book 4: The Candle in the Wind; sees Arthur in his dotage. Trapped by the ethics of his own Round Table creation, he struggles to hold his kingdom together in the face of treachery, betrayal, and deceit.