Abstract:
From its origins in the fifth and sixth centuries, Arthurian legend has been a source of material for writers from a breadth of times and cultures. Sir Thomas Malory used earlier Arthurian treatments to compose his fifteenth-century epic romance Le Morte D'Arthur, now one of the best-known versions of the legend. T. H. White, a twentieth-century writer, used Malory's work as the source for his own retelling of the story of Arthur.
The resulting novel, the four-part treatment The Once and Future King, deals with ideas suggested to white by Malory's narrative, exploring chiefly the nature of man and the attendant problem of war. White revitalizes his subject by creating medieval people who converse in twentieth-century idiom and by injecting comedy into the situations he presents.
He also infuses the narrative with personal experience, most significantly drawing upon his relationship with his mother to shape his treatment of women and the concept of fate that dominates his novel. The story of Arthur already being a blend of history and myth, White also melds historical periods one into the other, creating a work that transcends chronological boundaries.
More than simply a modernization of Malory, the novel is a dramatization of White's world view, evidencing a powerful, generally unforgiving fate and a human race that has fallen. In spite of the best efforts of Arthur, humanity appears fated to fulfill the destiny its base condition merits.
White, however, is not a fatalist, and he does suggest that mankind may yet redeem himself. When the time arrives, Arthur, the king of the future as well as the present, will be there to guide man through a better existence.
