The Once and Future King
The definitive modern Arthuriad: source of Camelot the musical, an acknowledged wellspring for writers from Gaiman to Rowling, and one of fantasy's few genuine tragedies.
Book Entry · Fantasy
The Sword in the Stone
by T. H. White · 1938 · The Once and Future King, book 1
What is The Sword in the Stone about?
The Wart — orphan, page, and future King Arthur, though nobody knows it — is educated by Merlyn, a wizard living backwards through time with a talking owl and a tendency to anachronism. The lessons are transformations: as perch, merlin, ant, wild goose and badger, the boy learns successive answers to the question of how power should live with strength. Around the lessons romp questing beasts, jousting send-ups and Robin Wood (not Hood, he's particular). The standalone 1938 text is gentler and stranger than the revised version White later folded into the tetralogy.
Why it matters
The twentieth century's most beloved Arthurian opening, source of Disney's 1963 film, and the template for the 'magical education' subgenre that Rowling industrialised.
Where does it sit in the series?
White's Arthurian cycle, from the Wart's enchanted education to the ruin of the Round Table — comedy ripening into tragedy.
In the Guide from The Once and Future King:
- The Sword in the Stone (1938)
- The Once and Future King (1958)
Read next
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