# The Once and Future King - Work: Novel - Date: 1938–58 (collected 1958) - Made by: T. H. White (Author) - Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-once-and-future-king/ > The Wart learns to be a king by being turned into a fish, a hawk, an ant and a goose — T. H. White's funny, heartbroken retelling of Malory for the century of world wars. **Why it matters:** The twentieth century's defining Arthurian novel: it gave the world Disney's Sword in the Stone and Broadway's Camelot, and taught later fantasy that a wizard's school could be a comedy and a tragedy at once. ## Quick answers **When was The Once and Future King first published?** The Once and Future King was first published in 1938–58 (collected 1958). **Who created The Once and Future King?** The Once and Future King was made by T. H. White (author). **What kind of work is The Once and Future King?** The Once and Future King is a novel in the Arthurian Fantasy tradition. **Why is The Once and Future King important?** The twentieth century's defining Arthurian novel: it gave the world Disney's Sword in the Stone and Broadway's Camelot, and taught later fantasy that a wizard's school could be a comedy and a tragedy at once. ## Overview *The Once and Future King* is [T. H. White](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/t-h-white/)'s four-part retelling of the life of King Arthur, from the boy called the Wart to the old king on the eve of his last battle. It rests on [Sir Thomas Malory](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/thomas-malory/)'s [Le Morte d'Arthur](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/le-morte-darthur/), which White calls simply "Malory" throughout, but it sounds like no other Arthurian book: anachronistic, digressive, very funny, and increasingly grief-stricken. Written across the years of rearmament and war and published as a single volume by Collins in 1958, it asks one question over and over: how might force be tamed into justice? It is the cornerstone of modern [Arthurian fantasy](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/arthurian-fantasy/). ## Origins White, a schoolmaster at Stowe who had resigned to write, reread Malory in the mid-1930s and was struck by how little the old text says about Arthur's youth. *The Sword in the Stone* (Collins, 1938) filled that gap. It was a success on both sides of the Atlantic — Putnam's American edition of 1939 was partly rewritten for its new readers — and the BBC adapted it for radio in 1939, with music by Benjamin Britten. *The Witch in the Wood* (1939) and *The Ill-Made Knight* (1940) followed. White then wrote the concluding sections, including *The Book of Merlyn*, in which the aged Arthur returns to the animals for a final lesson about war. His publishers balked at its pacifist lecturing, and the book stayed unpublished in his lifetime. For the collected edition of 1958 White heavily revised the earlier books — *The Witch in the Wood* was rewritten as *The Queen of Air and Darkness* — and transplanted the Merlyn book's ant and goose episodes into *The Sword in the Stone*. *The Book of Merlyn* finally appeared in 1977, thirteen years after White's death. ## The story In *The Sword in the Stone*, the Wart, a foster-son in Sir Ector's castle, is tutored by Merlyn, a magician who lives backward in time and so remembers the future. Merlyn's lessons consist of turning the boy into animals: a perch in the moat, a merlin among the hawks, an ant in a totalitarian colony, a wild goose in a society with no borders. The boy meets Robin Wood, falls in with King Pellinore and his endless pursuit of the Questing Beast, and at last pulls the sword from the stone. *The Queen of Air and Darkness* turns to the young king's attempt to replace "Might" with "Right" through the Round Table, while the Orkney boys grow up under their cruel mother Morgause, who seduces Arthur and conceives Mordred. *The Ill-Made Knight* is the story of Lancelot — ugly, devout and tormented — and his love for Guenever. *The Candle in the Wind* brings the reckoning: Mordred's plotting, the exposure of the lovers, and a king who has built law so well that it condemns his own wife. ## Reception & impact The collected novel was a bestseller, and critics recognized it as the most important modern treatment of the matter of Britain; [Lin Carter](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/lin-carter/) went so far as to call it the single finest fantasy novel written in his time. *The Sword in the Stone* was retroactively honored in 2014 with the Retro Hugo Award for Best Novel of 1938. Two famous adaptations spread it worldwide. Lerner and Loewe's Broadway musical *Camelot* (1960), drawn mostly from the last two books, became inseparable from the Kennedy era. Walt Disney, who had bought the rights to *The Sword in the Stone* as early as 1939, released his animated version on Christmas Day 1963, keeping Merlin's transformations and the squirrel romance and dropping the darker politics. ## Legacy White's influence runs through fantasy's treatment of mentors and education. The eccentric wizard-tutor who teaches through experience, the boy who does not know he is destined to rule, and the uneasy mixture of comedy and doom have become stock ingredients — visible, for instance, in [Susan Cooper](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/susan-cooper/)'s Merriman Lyon in [The Dark Is Rising](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-dark-is-rising/) and in the school-and-destiny stories that culminated in [Harry Potter](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/harry-potter/). Later screen Arthuriads such as John Boorman's [Excalibur](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/excalibur-film/) (1981) returned to Malory directly, but audiences came to them with White's humane, conflicted Arthur already in mind. For roleplayers, White's book is a reminder that Arthurian romance — later systematized in [Greg Stafford](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/greg-stafford/)'s [King Arthur Pendragon](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/king-arthur-pendragon/) — is at heart about the moral life of knights, not just their deeds. ## Facts - White read [Malory](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/le-morte-darthur/) as a young schoolmaster and set out to write about Arthur's boyhood, which Malory barely mentions. - The Sword in the Stone was broadcast by BBC radio in 1939 with incidental music by Benjamin Britten. - For the 1958 edition White moved the ant and goose episodes out of his unpublished Book of Merlyn and into The Sword in the Stone. - Walt Disney bought film rights to The Sword in the Stone as early as 1939; the animated film opened on Christmas Day 1963. - Lerner and Loewe's musical Camelot (1960) is based mostly on the last two books. - Lin Carter called it the single finest fantasy novel written in his time. ## Sources and further reading - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Once_and_Future_King) - [The Sword in the Stone (novel) — Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword_in_the_Stone_(novel)) --- From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.