The Once and Future King is a collection of four stories covering the life of King Arthur from boyhood to his final battle. Along the way we meet Merlin, Sir Lancelot, Guinevere and the various knights of the Round Table.
The first book in the collection is The Sword in the Stone. This story covers Arthur’s boyhood up to the drawing of the sword from the stone. It is a reworking of a story White wrote in 1938, and which is still available as a standalone novel, usually regarded as a children’s book. The version in The Once and Future King lacks certain episodes that I have always enjoyed, like the battle between Merlin and the witch, Madam Mim. It’s a more adult book, featuring White’s anti-war sentiments in Arthur’s encounters with ants and geese.
The second book is The Queen of Air and Darkness, which introduces the Orkney brothers – Gawaine, Agravaine, Gaheris and Gareth. The queen of the title is their mother, Morgause, who is Arthur’s half-sister and who seduces him and bears a son, Mordred. In this book Merlin encourages Arthur to set up the Round Table to use might for the cause of right.
The third book, The Ill-made Knight, focuses on the affair between Sir Lancelot and Guinevere and their attempts to keep it secret. It also introduces Sir Galahad, Sir Lancelot’s son due to a brief liaison with Elaine.
The fourth book is The Candle in the Wind. It tells how Mordred’s hatred of his father and Agravaine’s hatred of Lancelot led to the break-up of the Round Table and the downfall of Camelot.
The Once and Future King is loosely based on Le Morte D’Arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory. I found some parts more interesting than others, but over all it’s a reasonable telling of the Arthurian story for the Twentieth century. Whether it stands up so well in the Twenty-first century is for the reader to decide.
