The Once and Future King#Plot summary
{{Short description|1958 fantasy novel by T. H. White}}
{{other uses|The Once and Future King (disambiguation)}}
{{EngvarB|date=March 2020}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{infobox book |
| name = The Once and Future King
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = File:Once-and-Future-King-FC.jpg
| caption = First edition cover
| author = T. H. White
| cover_artist =
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
|set_in=England, {{circa|1200–1485}}{{Cite web|url=http://www2.netdoor.com/~moulder/thwhite/toafk_a.html|title=The Once and Future King, by T. H. White|website=www2.netdoor.com}}
| genre = Fantasy
| publisher = Collins
| release_date = 1958
| media_type = Print (hardback and paperback)
| dewey = 823/.912 21
| congress = PR6045.H2 O5 1996
| oclc = 35661057
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
}}
The Once and Future King is a collection of fantasy novels by T. H. White about the legend of King Arthur. It is loosely based upon the 1485 work Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory. It was first published in 1958 as a collection of shorter novels that were published from 1938 to 1940, with some new or amended material. The title refers to a legend that Arthur will one day return as king.{{cite web | url=https://study.com/academy/answer/what-does-the-once-and-future-king-mean.html | title=What does the Once and Future King mean? }}
Plot
Most of the book takes place in Gramarye, the name that White gives to Britain, and chronicles the youth and education of King Arthur, his rule as a king, and the romance between Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere. The story starts in the final years of the rule of King Uther Pendragon.
= ''[[The Sword in the Stone (novel)|The Sword in the Stone]]'' =
The first part, "The Sword in the Stone" (first published 1938), chronicles Arthur's upbringing by his foster father Sir Ector, his rivalry and friendship with his foster brother Kay, and his initial training by Merlyn, a wizard who lives through time backwards. Merlyn, 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. Merlyn 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.
= ''[[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 Queen Morgause. While the young king suppresses initial rebellions, Merlyn leads him to envision a means of harnessing potentially destructive Might for the cause of Right: the chivalric order of the Round Table.
= ''[[The Ill-Made Knight]]'' =
= ''[[The Candle in the Wind]]'' =
Mordred's hatred of his father and Sir Agravaine's hatred of Lancelot cause the eventual downfall of Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, and the entire ideal kingdom of Camelot. The "Candle in the Wind" is an allegory to the hope of progress. Arthur sends little Tom (Sir Thomas Mallory) to be a vessel and carry on his ideas from his famous round table.
= ''[[The Book of Merlyn]]'' =
Published separately following White's death, this book chronicles Arthur's final lessons from Merlyn and his final battle with Mordred.
Reception
Floyd C. Gale praised The Sword in the Stone as "blithely comic and entirely delightful", stating that it was "in utter contrast to the mounting tragedy" of the other three volumes of the series.{{cite news | url=https://archive.org/stream/galaxymagazine-1959-08/Galaxy_1959_08#page/n135/mode/2up | title=Galaxy's 5 Star Star Shelf | work=Galaxy | date=August 1959 | access-date=14 June 2014 | author=Gale, Floyd C. | pages=138–142}} Fantasy historian Lin Carter called it "the single finest fantasy novel written in our time, or for that matter, ever written."{{cite book
| last = Carter
| first = Lin
| author-link = Lin Carter
| title = Imaginary Worlds
| publisher = Ballantine Books
| year = 1973
| isbn = 0-345-03309-4
| page = [https://archive.org/details/imaginaryworlds00linc/page/125 125]
| url = https://archive.org/details/imaginaryworlds00linc/page/125
}} Constance Grady of Vox also praised the novel, stating: "White was writing for a post–World War II audience, but his book has a vigor and clarity that makes it an urgent and important read today."{{cite web |url=https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/5/18/15649214/once-and-future-king-th-white-king-arthur |title=Why The Once and Future King is still the best King Arthur story out there |website=Vox |date=18 May 2017 |access-date=5 February 2021 |archive-date=11 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111164344/https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/5/18/15649214/once-and-future-king-th-white-king-arthur |url-status=live }}
Adaptations
Walt Disney initially purchased the film rights to The Ill-Made Knight in 1944,{{cite web|url=http://efanzines.com/FWD/FWD37.htm|title=FUTURIAN WAR DIGEST No. 37 (Oct. 1944)|publisher=efanzines.com|access-date=19 March 2009|archive-date=14 September 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090914000046/http://efanzines.com/FWD/FWD37.htm|url-status=live}} and he produced an adaptation of The Sword in the Stone, released in 1963.
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".
BBC Radio produced a dramatised version of "The Sword in the Stone" for Children's Hour shortly after its publication in 1938. Incidental music for the serial was specially composed by Benjamin Britten.
A two-hour version of The Sword in the Stone, dramatised by Neville Teller, was first broadcast as a Saturday Night Theatre on Boxing Day, 1981. Michael Hordern played Merlyn and Toby Robertson was the Wart. The cast included Pauline Letts, David Davis, Jeffrey Segal and Lewis Stringer. Benjamin Britten's incidental music, played by the English Sinfonia, was used in the production, which was by Graham Gauld.
BBC Radio 4 serialised the book in six one-hour episodes dramatised by Brian Sibley, beginning on Sunday 9 November 2014 with Paul Ready as Arthur and David Warner as Merlyn.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio4/posts/The-Once-and-Future-King-New-Drama|title=BBC Blogs – The Radio 4 Blog – The Once and Future King – New Drama|author=Brian Sibley|work=The Radio 4 Blog|date=7 November 2014|access-date=25 December 2019|archive-date=26 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220526015053/https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio4/entries/7506ee2b-8c7f-37d2-b866-58296c102cb9|url-status=live}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{wikiquote}}
{{wikibooks}}
{{Commons category|The Once and Future King}}
- {{FadedPage|id=20150633|name=The Once and Future King}}
- {{isfdb title|id=2325|title=The Book of Merlyn}}
- [ftp://ftp.loc.gov/pub/nls/catalogs/minibib/white.txt "NLS/BPH: Minibibliographies, The Once and Future King" by T. H. White]{{dead link|date=May 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20080529061417/http://jeyers.phlipped.co.uk/arthur2.php Essay: "The Importance of the Second World War to T.H. White's Once and Future King".]
- [http://nebulasf.atspace.com/KFS35.htm 1958 review by Ken Slater]
{{The Once and Future King}}
{{King Arthur}}
{{Robin Hood}}
{{Fantasy fiction}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Once And Future King, The}}
Category:Book series introduced in 1958
Category:Modern Arthurian fiction
Category:British fantasy novels
Category:Novels by T. H. White
Category:William Collins, Sons books