“The Once and Future King” by T. H. White Research Paper

The Sword and The Stone

The Once and Future King was a novel written by T.H. White that comprises four novels of the ascendancy of King Arthur. The books referred to were “book 1-The Sword in the Stone, book 2-The Queen of Air and Darkness, book 3-The Ill-Made Knight and book 4-The Candle in the Wind, (Benson, Etienne and Phillips, Brian, 2008.) The author Terence Hanbury White who lives a solitary life influences his novel in such a way that animals portrayed in the novel symbolize a certain human character. “White led a solitary life, and other than his few friends from the academic and literary world, his only companions were his pets. White was particularly heartbroken when his dog Brownie, a red setter, died after fourteen years of faithful friendship”, ((Benson, Etienne and Phillips, Brian, 2008.)

This paper will focus only on Book 1- The Sword and The Stone describing the adventures of Wart in terms of the role of magic influenced by his tutor, Merlyn, focuses on animal transformation as Arthur’s educational training ground before becoming the King of medieval England. In chapters 5 and 8, Wart turned into a fish and merlin, a hunting bird, his first exposure as a fish to the new world as to what lies ahead when King rules with absolute power. Wart’s response to the pike’s aggressive statement shows the capability of Wart to rule a just and good ruler. Wart’s exposure to the rest of the birds as he stayed overnight with them exposed him to the life of a soldier fighting and defending his boundaries as to soldiers in his future kinghood demonstrates courage that endures to lead and rule.

Literature 2

In chapters 13 and 18, Wart was transformed into an ant, an owl and a goose. In the communal life of an ant, Wart experienced how to work for a common good not for the common goal but of what the society dictates even to the point of losing freedom yet embracing hard labor as a duty. “In his head, the Wart can hear repetitive broadcasts that alternate between giving orders and directions and playing repetitive, soothing gibberish.

The Wart comes across an ant who is busy arranging the corpses of two dead ants. Because the Wart is doing nothing, the ant thinks he is insane and reports him to the central command”, (Benson, Etienne and Phillips, Brian, 2008). During his stay with the ant, Wart also learned about territories defended by ants. Any other ant not belonging to the same group of ant was considered to be enemy of the group thus waging war and violence is a common incident.

When Wart transformed into an owl where he learned to fly and then turn into a goose, he learned the difference between colonies of ant and colonies of goose. Though both colonies are communal in nature but the difference of goose life differs in that of the ant because there are no territories or boundaries in their way of life. Yet goose work for a common goal and common cause beneficial to the whole colony and do not suppresses freedom. Predators are considered to be the lone enemy of the goose colony which is not of the same specie unlike ants. Wart was able to learn the differences between governing societies during the transformation.

In chapter 21 where Wart transformed into a badger, weakened him to devour the hedgehog but eventually realized upon a dialogue with a wise badger about the parable of Man’s power or control over animals. A lesson Wart learned from his fish transformation about how to handle with absolute power whether for the good of all his dominion or for the worst of it. Wart realized then not to eat the hedgehog that implies what he chooses when to lead a kingdom in the future, either for tyranny or for freedom. The kind of absolute power Wart will be able to embrace when time will come for Wart to become a King Arthur. Absolute power which was already offered with free will so it’s in the hands of Wart to take it differently, abuse it and rule over it absolutely.

With all these magical transformation that Wart encountered during his childhood manifest a training ground for wart to be able to become a good ruler. The future King Arthur of medieval England will have an absolute power over his people that serve justice and peace over his kingdom. Wart’s early education with Merlyn was a preparation for a more duties and responsibilities to come. Unknowingly, Wart, an ordinary adopted boy to become the legendary King Arthur of England was a throne he never dreamed of but fate follows him through. Wart’s training ground educated him to rule, guide and guard his kingdom for a common cause beneficial to all while to keep his feet on the ground not allowing the power to eat up his whole being as a person. Humility will be his discipline.

Since the novel, The Once and Future King is an adaptation of Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur (The Death of Arthur) and was written after the end of WWII that implies the social relevance of the novel pertaining to political behavior of the time. “He was often deeply pessimistic about the nature of humankind. He wanted his book to explain why Malory called his book The Death of Arthur.

He wanted to represent Arthur as a role model, as relevant in the twentieth century as when Malory wrote”, (BOOKRAGS STAFF, 2008). T. H. White representation of animals also conveyed an inspiration in the idea of what man may learn from animal world. Revision of the novel foretells a twisting plot of common idea from medieval period up to present time. Jessica Allen wrote an abstract of Sly, Debbie. Natural Histories: Learning from Animals in T.H. White’s Arthurian Sequence. Worldviews: Environment Culture Religion; 2000, Vol. 4 Issue 2, p 1111146-163:

This essay, which highlights the alterations T.H. White placed in the revision of his short story ‘The Sword in the Stone’ and its later appearance in The Once and Future King focuses on two main avenues that share common, intertwining themes. Written in 1938, just on the cusp of WWII and in the final throes of high modernism, and rewritten again in 1958, as literary history turned to post-modernism, the tale of Arthurian cycle experienced many changes.

The essay also outlines the emphasis of the natural world White placed within his writing, especially the use of animals as symbolic creatures. Specific textual examples are given that convey White’s purpose; an example being the juxtaposition of rabbits and ferrets as a way to signify the dichotomy between men and women. Furthermore, the combination of the natural world and the representational animals depicted create an exclusively masculine world—one where characters live by a code of hunting and killing (honorably, of course). The paper concludes that White did this in an attempt to reconstruct the closest equivalent to a chivalric and virtuous atmosphere.

References

Debbie Sly. Natural Histories: Learning from Animals in T.H. White’s Arthurian. Worldview: Environment Culture Religion, 1363-5247 Vol. 4, Issue 2. Illinois State Library. 2000.

BOOKRAGS STAFF. “The Once and Future King: Book 1, Chapter 5”. 2000. Web.

Jessica Allen. ENG 4401: Senior Seminar: Chivalry — Spring 2007. Abstract. Sly, Debbie. Natural Histories: Learning from Animals in T.H. White’s Arthurian Sequence. Worldviews: Environment Culture Religion; 2000, Vol. 4 Issue 2, p 1111146-163. Web.

F. Gallix & Sutton, A. T.H. White Letters to a Friend. Letter to L.J. Potts. p.117.

Kertzer Adrienne (1985). T.H. White Sword in the Stone: Education and the Child’s Reader, Touchstones: Reflections on the Best in Children’s Literature, Vol. 1, Children’s Literature Association, 281-290.

Literature 6

Outline

The Once and Future King

The book foretells how animal behavior influenced the life of a boy who eventually became a King. His boyhood revolves around animals that reveals to him different kinds of life. Thru his acquaintance with these animals he learned the many values that gain him insights how to deal life as a King. He was trained in chivalry and mathematics. This boy named Art and became known as Wart struggles to preserve the values he learned….

• Describe the four novels of “The Once and Future King”
  • The author’s sequential title of his novel.
  • Gives emphasis on the first book.
• First Book – The Sword in the Stone
  • Warts magical transformation into an animal
    • Significance of an animal towards Wart/ King Arthur
    • Lessons learned from animals
  • An overview of the author’s suggestive role of a ruler for the society