17: The Once and Future King

A book by T. H. White

I learned from listening a lot

To a podcast named Rex Factor

That all the medieval kings

Were obsessed with one King Arthur.

To emulate him uppermost

Was their stated common aim.

Ed The Third perhaps did it best

Although his grandpa has a claim.

But what of legendary Camelot

Was buried in my brain?

Not so much, I must confess

Not even enough to feign.

So where are all of Arthur’s legends

Buried in one place,

And tells the stories vividly

With elegance and pace?

After not so little Googling

On one tome did I alight,

It was The Once and Future King

By Terence Hanbury White.

It’s made up of five volumes

And is near nine hundred pages long;

But given it was bang mid-lockdown

The timing couldn't have been wrong.

And what a treat it proved to be

How sweet to while away the time

With writing of such quality

It has sparked this folly into rhyme.

It starts with the story of young Wart

And his foster brother Kay;

They made it into The Sword in the Stone

That Disney film from back in the day.

We’re introduced to Merlyn

Who shows young Wart the ropes

Because he knows the boy will shoulder

An entire nation’s hopes.

It’s fairly junior stuff at first

All lightness, joy, and fun,

There’s a talking owl named Archimedes

And a Questing Beast to stun.

Does that last long? You know the answer

As we all somehow do.

Even with a man as pure as Arthur

It’s too good to be true.

Who ruins it? That’s quite the query.

Was it Guinevere and Lance,

Morgause, Morded, or Gawaine,

Perhaps just the paw of chance?

White’s anachronistic writing

Serves only to entertain

Like when he compares Lancelot to Bradman

As in Don, England cricket’s bane.

It’s not all swords and battles,

Swashbuckling and chivalry;

In fact White often tells his reader:

“If you want that, consult Malory.”

But that makes this all the better,

This book’s got real heft,

And not just ‘cos it’ll stop your door;

When you’re done, you’re left bereft.

So if you, like me, want to know

About those Knights of that Round Table,

You could do much worse than pick this up

This quite fantastic fable.