Book Review: The Once and Future King by T. H. White

So you may be wondering what inspired me to post about the concepts in the previous post.  Partly they were sort of drifting around in my mind for a long time, but this book helped to bring them together.  There has been considerable debate over the historicity of King Arthur, with most modern scholars doubting his existence (as if a lack of evidence for someone's existence proves they didn't exist? I still don't quite get that).  I once had a history teacher who was really into emphasizing that Camelot and the Round Table and chivalry were fictitious and that England just after William the Conqueror was as close as England ever got to this idea.    Nice guy, but you can only insist things so loudly before you sound like a fool.  Whatever - the point is, whether or not King Arthur existed hardly matters.  What matters are the concepts and stories surrounding the Arthurian legends and the fact that people loved and valued them.  My idea is that, quite possibly, these legends are the result of an actual historical figure from the 5th century or so getting muddled with some of the concepts introduced and promoted by Alfred the Great during his unification and reform of Wessex.  Quite a bit in Alfred's actual documented life and accomplishments seems to echo Arthur's fictitious life and accomplishments according to White.  But of course I am really no expert.

So, to the book: it was a bit different in style and approach from a lot of the other "high fantasy" I am used to reading (Tolkien, Morris, etc.)  At first, it seemed like it only marginally took itself seriously - certain parts were just so goofy and off the wall I was almost dreading having to read about what happens next.  Then about halfway through the book started reading like more of a soap opera.  At that point though I was hooked, not so much because of the soap opera factor, as because I found myself suddenly identifying all too well with two prominent characters, Arthur and Lancelot.  They were portrayed quite convincingly, and I saw very much of my own character reflected in both of them, though (it should come as no surprise) I would rather not say a whole lot more about that!

I note two really outstanding features of this book.  One is the author's remarkable familiarity with medieval culture, lifestyle and attitudes.  It is actually quite mind-boggling, and fascinating, and he writes about it very convincingly.  From tilting to boar hunting to taking revenge on people who killed your mother, it's all there.  You pretty much have to read the book to appreciate it.  Sure a lot of romanticizing goes on, but I tend to put that in a rather separate category - for the most part a discerning reader can manage not to muddle these elements from the convincing parts.

The other outstanding feature is the characters.  There are a great number of them and they are all quite different, and quite convincing, even the ones you hardly meet except in passing.  Quite a few of them could also be considered eccentric, making things all the more interesting.  But then eccentric was pretty much normal back then.

One final, very important thing to note is that a number of scenes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail are taken directly from this book (which I had not realized before), and while the movie of course presents them in parody form, they are sometimes nearly as comical in their original form.  For example, a couple scenes in the book closely recalled the encounter with the black knight in the movie.  Sir Galahad (the Chaste)'s foray into the castle Anthrax has a precedent in the book though it is with a different knight.  It is nice to know the Python screenwriters didn't just make that completely up just to be lewd.

So, on the whole, it was quite a good read by a remarkably talented, if somewhat eccentric, author.  Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book:

“Morals are a form of insanity.  Give me a moral man who insists on doing the right thing all the time, and I will show you a tangle which an angel couldn’t get out of.”

“Perhaps we all give the best of our hearts uncritically—to those who hardly think about us in return.”

“The destiny of man is to unite, not to divide.  If you keep on dividing you end up as a collection of monkeys throwing nuts at each other out of separate trees.”

“Do you know, I shall be talking about God a great deal, and this is a word which offends unholy people just as badly as words like ‘damn’ and so on offend the holy ones.”

“Manners are only needed between people, to keep their empty affairs in working order.  Manners makyth man, you know, not God.”