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semper-legens · 3 years

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198. The Once and Future King, by T.H. White

Owned?: Yes Page count: 844 My summary: The tale of King Arthur, from his childhood days as the young Wart, being tutored by the wizard Merlyn, to his fraught later years as King, forced to choose between his country and his heart. My rating: 3.5/5 My commentary:

Well, this was an undertaking. Technically speaking, this is more like five books rolled into one, but I decided to count them all as one as I don’t have as much to say about them individually. This is a classic, and for a good reason. TH White brings a modernisation (well, it was written in the late 30s/early 40s, but you know what I mean) of Arthurian legends, telling the whole story of King Arthur, from his childhood to his eventual demise at the hands of his son. I read it first in uni, and as I’m on a bit of an Arthurian kick at the minute, I thought I’d return to it to see what I think when I’m not mining it for essay content.

The first book is The Sword in the Stone, and its main focus is the young Arthur (or Wart) being tutored by Merlyn in preparation for him taking the throne. It’s very light in tone and comedic, showcasing the sillier side of Arthurian literature, and Merlyn’s anachronisms caused by him living backwards are mined for comedy. There’s a lot of bizarre, weird stuff going on, but that’s not a criticism. It’s pretty fun, especially given that young Wart is an endearing kid. He’s not the smartest, and he often gets stuff wrong, but he’s trying, bless him. He doesn’t know he’s going to be King Arthur. He just assumes he’ll be the Wart forever.

Then there’s The Witch in the Wood, mostly about the four brothers from the Orkneys (Gawain, Gaheris, Gareth, and Agravaine), their witch mother (Morgause, Arthur’s sister) and Arthur’s early reign. This is where the books shift into a slightly darker tone, though we still have our share of silliness (hi, Pellinore!) and light amidst Morgause boiling a cat alive. This mostly serves to set up the Orkney clan’s quarrels with Arthur, and the reason they are the way they are. I’ll admit, sometimes I can’t tell the difference between these kids, but it’s still an interesting book. I just don’t have much to say about it because it’s all setup, mostly.

Straight in the middle is The Ill-Made Knight, which shifts the focus to Lancelot. He’s interesting in this one. There’s a lot of subtext between him and Arthur - the narrative comes out of the gate telling us that Lancelot loves Arthur, and initially hates and is jealous of Guinevere for that reason. Lancelot’s also explicitly ugly, and a lot of his mental issues are foregrounded - his impostor syndrome, the way he’s striving to be the best he can be despite never quite living up to his own expectations. It all sows the seed for what he will become, of course, but this is one of the more interesting depictions of Lancelot I’ve seen. I hate the perfect shiny version of Lancelot, give me a Lancelot who’s regretful and flawed and struggling and still good at things, but not the most specialest boy in the universe.

Then comes The Candle In The Wind, about the Lancelot/Guinevere/Arthur situation, and the decline of Arthur’s rule. All of the problems seeded above are coming home to roost. The Orkneys are against Arthur, and want to get rid of him - helped by their half-brother Mordred, Arthur’s son who hates him for some genuinely terrible shit Arthur did. Arthur is refusing to see the relationship between his wife and his best friend, knowing that if he acknowledges it, he will have to punish them and lose them both. His Round Table is not living up to the ideals he imagined. It’s genuinely heartbreaking to see this slow decline, to see the tragedy wheel round to its inevitable conclusion, as the characters can’t help but act according to their natures even when it only brings strife and misery and pain.

And then there’s The Book of Merlyn. Reader, I hated The Book of Merlyn. Why? Well, here’s how it goes. Arthur is on the brink of both defeat and despair. He has lost most of those he loved, and is readying himself to go to battle against his estranged son. On this precipice, Merlyn returns, and...the narrative grinds to a screeching halt so the author the characters can debate which political system is the best. Sure, I get it. White was writing this during World War Two. That’s gonna be on your mind. But if you want to write a narrative, write a narrative, you know? Don’t just debate politics at the climax. Honestly, I’d have hated this much less if it came earlier in the narrative (which some of it does - the ant and goose sections from TSitS show up here again) but its placement is just baffling to me. Not to mention that White’s opinions are, er, suspect. Public property is bad and the cause of all evil in the world, communism is bad even when what we’re presenting as communism is more fascism, anarchy is the right way but the version of anarchy we’re presenting has military ranks in it, capitalism is fine...I just hated this whole book, honestly.

That’s all for this one - well, it’s not, I could write and have written essays on this thing, but it’ll do for now. Next, back to YA, but still in history. Who’s ready for a zombie story?

#The Once and Future King #TH White #bookblr #book blog #book blogging #3.5

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