The Once and Future King: Book IV

Mordred and Agrivaine plot to destroy both Arthur and Lancelot. Despite protests from Gawaine they bring to Arthur's unavoidable attention the affair between Guenevere and Lancelot. They plan on proving there accusations by catching the two together. Gareth tries to warn Lancelot of the plot, but Lancelot does not heed him. When Mordred, Agrivaine, guards come to Guenevere's room Lancelot kills all but Mordred flees.

Arthur, due to the laws that he set up, is forced to have Guenevere burned at the stake. On the day of her execution though, Lancelot comes and rescues her, unfortunately though, in the confusion both Gareth and Gaheris were killed, despite being unarmed. Arthur goes to war with Lancelot, and lays siege to his castle. Lancelot and Guenevere try at peace, and have Lancelot sent to France.

Gawaine, however, wants revenge for the deaths of his brothers so he and Arthur follow Lancelot to France. While there they receive a letter from Guenevere explaining that Mordred plans on telling all of England that Arthur and Gawaine have died, and both declare Guenevere his wife, and him the new King. Arthur and Gawaine return to stop him. Lancelot receives a letter from Gawaine explaining what has happened, telling him that he forgives him for killing his brothers, asks for him to come to help Arthur, and that he is going to die from the wound that Lancelot himself gave him.

Arthur ponders the reasons for war, and how to prevent it, while in his tent the night before he is to have his final battle with Mordred. He tells a page to remember his story, his ideas, most importantly how might should always be used for right. He tells him to go spread these messages and ideas, to make sure they are not forgotten... when he dies.

Thus ends T. H. Whites masterpiece, The Once and Future King. It is quite amazing to look at this and realize how many single things there are that could have made this ending completely avoidable. If Arthur had been able to resist Morgause's charm, Mordred would never have been born, or if Arthur had simply not tried to have him killed as a child, he might not have hated Arthur so very much. If Lancelot hadn't gotten drunk that night, or if Elaine hadn't tricked him, Lancelot may never have started his affair with Guenevere. If Lancelot had listened to Gareth and not went to Guenevere that night, or if Lancelot never promised Arthur he wouldn't kill Mordred, there would be no witness' left to report the adultery. If Gareth and Gaheris weren't "found" dead by Mordred (without Lancelot remembering killing them... I mean, really, how many hints do you need?) atleast Lancelot could have gone home to France and no one would have had to die. If any one of those things (and many more events) had happened even slightly differently, I believe this would have had a much happier ending, but it wouldn't have made for nearly as emotionally impacting of a story, and in the end no one really wants everything to work out for people in their books, or movies, or any other form of storytelling. No, that's doesn't make a good story. They want complications that turn for the worst, and make the characters that they love suffer, and in this respect The Once and Future King has one of the happiest endings of all time (for the reader of course).

The Once and Future King: Book III

The Ill made Knight introduces Lancelot as a child training to become a knight, which he finally becomes when he is knighted by Arthur, who he becomes very good friends with. At first Lancelot sees Guenevere as getting in the way of his and Arthur's friendship, but soon he falls in love with her. To keep himself from betraying his strong morale code, along with his friends trust by succumbing to temptation and sleeping with Guenevere he leaves on a quest.

During his travels, Lancelot upholds Arthur's ideals, by using might for right. He bests many unrighteous knights and always sending his prisoners back to Camelot to kneel before Guenevere. One night however Lancelot is tricked ,while drunk, to sleep with a girl named Elaine. When he awakes to find what he has been tricked into doing, and believing now that he has lost his innocence, he will no longer be able to perform miracles he returns to Camelot and begins an affair with Guenevere. After a while though, Guenevere learns of Elaine (who has given birth to Lancelot's son Galahad), and angrily confronts her and Lancelot. Lancelot suddenly jumps out the window and runs away, leaving Elaine to turn the tide of the confrontation, accusing Guenevere of driving Lancelot mad.

After many accounts of a wild man that might be Lancelot, Elaine finds him, and nurses him back to sanity. After Lancelot has recovered, he takes up the name Le Chevalier Mal Fet (meaning the ill made knight), and him and Elaine start living together. After a tournament Lancelot reveals to two knights of the round table his true identity, and they persuade him to return to Camelot. Lancelot promises Elaine that he will return.

Arthur, seeing that the round table is weakening sends his knights on a quest to find the holy Grail. During his search Lancelot is beaten in a joust to his son Galahad, distraught by the fact that he was no longer the best knight in the world Lancelot attempts to repent for his sins, and upon returning to Camelot does not continue his affair with Guenevere. Guenevere has him leave again so as to not torture her any longer. Lancelot is not gone long however, before he returns to fight as Guenevere's champion against an accusation of attempting to poison Gawaine. After this incident, Lancelot goes to visit Elaine, but when he leaves again, and she realizes he will never love her, she kills herself.

After rescuing Guenevere from her kidnapper Meligrance, he spares his life, but sleeps with Guenevere again. Meligrance then accuses Guenevere of sleeping with one of her guards, and once again Lancelot defends her honor, and brutally kills Meligrance in combat. After they return to Camelot, Lancelot cures a mans wounds by placing his hand on him. While everyone around him cheers at the miracle Lancelot himself cries.

Galahad becomes seemingly perfect, and pure, as opposed to his father Lancelot whose faults become apparent, yet White seems to insist that we sympathize, and generally care much more about Lancelot then the cold, pious Galahad. In this White is, I believe, showing the line between being good and righteous to the point of perfection, and actually being a human with faults, and actual emotions. For all his struggles within himself, conflicting desires, and eventual sins, we love Lancelot, for he epitomizes what it actually means to be human.

One of the strongest parts of The Ill Made Knight is Arthur's slowly growing awareness, and ignoring of the affair. When it first begins, he has blocked even the thought that it was a possibility that his best friend, and his wife would do such a thing from his mind. As we go on however he begins to realize what is happening, and instead of doing anything about it, or acknowledging it, he simply goes on pretending he didn't notice. Arthur is unwilling to expose them, for if he did, by the very principles that he built his kingdom on, he would be forced to punish them. The fact that he is unwilling to do that shows quite a bit about Arthur as a human being, rather then as a king, as we usually see him since he has become an adult.

The Once and Future King: Book II

Book II of The Once and Future King, The Queen of Air and Darkness starts off introducing the four Orkney brothers, Gawaine, Gaheris, Agravaine, and Gareth, and their mother Morgause's negligent parenting. Being very cruel to her children most of the time, and then every so often showering them with affection, so as to appease her need to be perfect in her own mind. Needless to say this inconsistent behavior confuses and mentally affects each of the boys.

Meanwhile Arthur is busy searching (with the help of Merlyn) for the way might should be used in his kingdom, at the same time that he is fending off a Gaelic rebellion led by Morgause's husband King lot. Once his opponents have been defeated, Arthur begins to make reforms in order to turn his kingdom into one in which might is used for right. Morgause travels to England and tricks Arthur into sleeping with her. Nine months later, Morgause gives birth to Arthur's son Mordred.

I believe that it is The Queen of Air and Darkness which really shows the utmost strength in T.H.Whites writing, the sharp change in tone and mood from the the first book, where Arthur is just a small boy having adventures in a world that I can only imagine as bright and cheerful, to the dark depressing, and twisted world in which the Orkney brothers grow up, really destroys any hope of not pitying these children, even when they grow older and so things, that without knowing any history on them would make you be disgusted by, and hate them.

With that the second book also shows more of White's great character development in Arthurs questioning of the way might is used. It is actually quite great to be able to see Arthur grow, and to watch as Merlyn deftly molds him into the great ruler he knows he will become. White also helps this second book, by leaving a little bit of the lighter mood from the first book with Pellinore and company, thus slowing the overall transition to darkness.

(I think I managed to summarize rather briefly for once... it only took me five hours longer then usual...)

Once and Future King: Book I

In the first book of The Once and Future King, by T.H. White the Wart, an adopted orphan child, is raised by Sir Ector; along with Sir Ector's actual son Kay. After Kay loses their hawk, while they are hawking, Wart follows the bird deeper into the woods where he meets King Pellinore, who is on a hunt after the questing beast. The Wart eventually falls asleep in the forest after he awakes he comes across Merlyn at his cottage, Merlyn already knows Warts name, and tells him this is because he is a magician who lives backwards in time, and that he will be the Warts tutor, they leave for Sir Ectors castle.

Merlyn appears to be telling the truth, and becomes both the Warts, and Kays tutor. As their tutor, Merlyn turns the Wart into various animals to teach him lessons from these different animals social structures, he does not however do so for Kay, which can be seen as unusual because Kay is going to become a knight, and the Wart only his squire. Along with the various escapades as animals, the Wart (accompanied by Kay) also goes on a quest with Robin Wood to rescue a some of his people from the queen of the Fairies Morgan Le Fay.

After six years of various adventures, and teachings from Merlyn, Kay is being knighted when word is received from Sir Pellinore that king Uther Pendragon has died without an heir, and that a sword has appeared in an anvil, and supposedly whoever is able to pull it out of said anvil is the rightful king of England. Kay convinces everyone that they should go to the tournament, in fact Kay is so anxious to get to the jousting that he forgets his sword, and sends the Wart back to the inn to fetch it for him, with the inn being closed the Wart is not able to retrieve his sword, he does however see a sword in an anvil which he attempts to retrieve for Kay. He fails on his first two attempts to do so, but on his third attempt old animal friends seem to congregate around him, and give him encouragement, and he easily pulls the sword free. The Wart then proceeds to bring the sword to Kay. recongizing what sword this is Kay falsely claims that he pulled it out, but Kay soon tells the truth as Sir Ector questions him, after which to the dismay of the Wart, both his foster father, and brother kneel to him.

After a brief time of proving himself by pulling the sword from the stone in front of people, the War is accepted as the king of all England, and Merlyn tells him that he was indeed the son of Uther Pendragon, and that it was Merlyn himself who brought him to Sir Ectors castle as a child, and that his real name is Arthur.

Although The Once and Future king, and Le Morte d'Arthur tell the same basic story, The Once and future King goes into much more depth and description, and puts so much more emphasis on character development that in a sense they are quite hard to be seen as even close to similar in writing style. In a comparison, The Once and Future King easily wins out as far enjoyability simply because of the added depth. In The Once and Future King, Arthur (along with all the characters actually, but Arthur in particular), actually has reasoning, and appears to be a conscious thinking human being, unlike the characters of Le Morte d'Arthur, who seemed to follow a set narrow thinking, and did not differ from that path. T.H White on the other hand fleshed these people out, and gave them the ability to make decisions by themselves. I would like to make predictions of what is to happen next, but seeing as how I have read this previously, I don't think that would be the most truthful thing I could spend my time doing.

(p.s again... quite sorry for the lack of short summary writing ability.)

Le Morte d'Arthur

In Le Morte d'Arthur, by Thomas Malory (more accurately the material of Le Morte d'Arthur provided for me) begins with Arthur (being born of the king of Britain Uther Pendragon) is sent away to be brought up by Sir Ector. After Uther Pendragon died, in order to determine who the rightful heir to the throne, Merlin had a sword placed in a stone, and only the rightful king would be able to pull it out. Arthur proceeded to do just that. With his new power Arthur created an order of knights; the knights of the round table. Out of the many knights of the round table Sir Lancelot was the greatest. Lancelot went on many adventures, defeating many less pure hearted knights then he, all under the flag of his beloved (yet married to Arthur) Gwynevere. Lancelot and Arthur are forced into conflict over Gwynevere by Modred and Aggravayne. Lancelot returns home to France, and Gawain persuades Arthur to wage war on him, while Arthur does so, Modred stays and takes over the throne through treachery. Arthur hearing of this returned to Britain and after a series of battles Arthur Killed Modred, but not before Modred managed to land a blow to his skull, which he eventually died of.

Le Morte d'Arthur (what I have read of it), in my opinion is an amazing piece of literature, and I commend Thomas Malory for being able to pull all the pieces of the myth of King Arthur together so nicely (while in prison no less). Moving past that, Le Morte d'Arthur does not have very much depth into it's characters, which can be blamed on the time period in which it was written, there were times where I would have like to know someones reasoning for doing something, or in the case of Lancelot, to have done something that wasn't entirely predictable. Although this lack of depth adds quite a bit of focus on the plot, and makes it move forward at a much faster rate then most modern literature, which is heavily focused on character development, and is actually quite refreshing. With all that in mind, Le Morte d'Arthur is quite good.

(Also, I am quite sorry for my inability to summarize more briefly)