The Sword in the Stone

Summary

The Sword in the Stone is T. H. White's comic and affectionate account of the boyhood of King Arthur, set in a merry, anachronistic Middle Ages. Arthur, called the Wart, is an orphan of unknown birth raised by the kindly Sir Ector at the Castle of the Forest Sauvage alongside Ector's son Kay, an older, proud and often unhappy boy who will one day be a knight while the Wart expects to be his squire. When Kay loses a goshawk in the forest, the Wart follows it, spends a night alone among the trees, meets the absent-minded King Pellinore, who has spent his life chasing the Questing Beast, and comes upon the cottage of Merlyn, an old magician who lives backward through time and keeps a sharp-tongued owl named Archimedes. Merlyn comes to the castle as the boys' tutor. His real lessons are transformations: he turns the Wart into a fish in the castle moat, where the great old pike who rules it teaches that power is the only thing that matters; into a merlin in the hawks' mews, where the trained hawks hold a stern night-time ceremony of courage; and into other creatures whose lives show him different ways of ruling and being ruled. The Wart also watches a slow, ridiculous joust between Pellinore and Sir Grummore Grummursum, is captured with Kay by the witch Madame Mim and rescued after a duel of shape-changing between her and Merlyn, joins the outlaw Robin Wood and Maid Marian to free captives from the enchanted castle of Morgan le Fay, where Kay kills a griffin, and follows a winter boar hunt in which the huntsman Twyti mourns his hound Beaumont. When Kay is to be knighted, the Wart grieves at the thought of being only a squire, and Merlyn tells him that learning is the cure for sadness. King Uther Pendragon dies without an heir, and a sword appears fixed in an anvil on a stone in a London churchyard, inscribed to say that whoever draws it is the rightful king. Sir Ector takes the boys to the New Year tournament; Kay forgets his sword, and the Wart, sent to fetch one, pulls the sword from the stone while the creatures he has known seem to urge him on. Kay at first claims the deed but confesses; Ector and Kay kneel to the Wart, he is crowned King Arthur, and his parentage as Uther's son is made known. Collins published the book in London in 1938, and a partly rewritten American edition followed from Putnam. White later revised it heavily as the first part of The Once and Future King (1958), dropping Madame Mim and the giant Galapas and adding episodes among ants and wild geese.

Plot or Argument

• The castle and the lost hawk

  Sir Ector seeks a tutor for Kay and the Wart; chasing the lost goshawk, the Wart meets King Pellinore and finds Merlyn and Archimedes in the forest.

• Merlyn's first lessons

  Merlyn joins the household; the Wart becomes a fish in the moat and meets the tyrant pike, and watches Pellinore and Sir Grummore joust.

• Hawks, witch and giant

  As a merlin the Wart passes the hawks' night ordeal; he and Kay are rescued from Madame Mim after the wizards' duel; the original edition also brings the Wart to the castle of the giant Galapas.

• Robin Wood and Morgan le Fay

  The boys join Robin Wood and Marian against the fairy queen, and Kay wins honour by killing a griffin on the way home.

• The boar hunt and Kay's knighthood

  Master Twyti leads the winter hunt and grieves for his hound; Kay is to be knighted, the Wart mourns his lot, and Merlyn prescribes learning.

• The sword in the stone

  At the London tournament the Wart draws the sword from the anvil, Kay confesses, Sir Ector kneels, and the Wart is crowned King Arthur.

Characters

• The Wart (Arthur), protagonist

  Sir Ector's modest, eager ward, who learns from Merlyn's transformations and becomes king.

• Merlyn, tutor

  A forgetful, wise old magician who lives backward in time and teaches by turning the Wart into animals.

• Archimedes, Merlyn's owl

  A dignified, touchy owl who becomes the Wart's friend and guide.

• Kay, foster-brother

  Sir Ector's son, proud and quarrelsome but honest in the end.

• Sir Ector, guardian

  The good-natured lord of the Castle of the Forest Sauvage, who raises the Wart as his own.

• King Pellinore, knight-errant

  A bumbling, kindly king who has spent his life hunting the Questing Beast.

• Sir Grummore Grummursum, knight

  Pellinore's hearty opponent in a long, comic joust.

• Madame Mim, witch

  A sorceress who captures the boys and fights Merlyn in a shape-changing duel (original edition only).

• Robin Wood and Maid Marian, outlaws

  White's Robin Hood and Marian, who lead the raid on Morgan le Fay's castle.

• Master Twyti, huntsman

  The king's huntsman, who leads the boar hunt and loves his hounds.

Lessons

• Learning as a remedy

  When the Wart is miserable at the thought of being Kay's squire, Merlyn tells him that the cure for sadness is to learn something. The book itself is a long schooling in which the boy who expects nothing becomes fit for the highest office by learning about every kind of life.

  • Why is the Wart sad when Kay is to be knighted?
  • What does Merlyn say is the best cure for being sad?
  • Has learning something new ever helped you through a hard time?

• Might is not right

  The pike in the moat tells the Wart that there is no power but power itself, and the boy is nearly eaten for listening. Merlyn's lessons set the Wart against that view, so that the future king learns early that strength alone is a bad rule for a kingdom.

  • What does the pike believe, and how does he treat the fish of the moat?
  • Why do you think Merlyn lets the Wart meet the pike?
  • What kind of king might the Wart have become if he had agreed with the pike?

• The humble one is chosen

  Kay is the knight and heir; the Wart is the foundling who fetches swords. Yet it is the Wart, sent on a squire's errand, who draws the sword from the stone. White shows that the boy who expected only to serve has the heart that makes a good ruler.

  • Why is the Wart looking for a sword in the churchyard at all?
  • What does Kay do when he sees the sword, and what does he do later?
  • Why does Sir Ector kneel to the boy he raised?

• Comedy and kindness

  White laughs at knights who joust for hours and at a king forever chasing a beast he never catches, but he never laughs cruelly. Pellinore, Sir Ector and the hunters are foolish and lovable at once, and the book teaches the reader to enjoy people's oddities with affection.

  • What is funny about the joust between Pellinore and Sir Grummore?
  • Why does Twyti cry after the boar hunt?
  • Which character in the book would you most like to meet, and why?

Context

White wrote the book in the late 1930s, drawing on Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, which tells in a few lines how the boy Arthur, raised by Sir Ector, pulled the sword from the stone. White filled in the boyhood Malory leaves out with his own knowledge of falconry, hunting, natural history and medieval life, and with deliberate jokes about his own century. The book sets the comic, hopeful beginning of an Arthurian cycle that White later carried through to the fall of Camelot.

Composition

Collins published The Sword in the Stone in London in 1938; an American edition, partly rewritten by White and illustrated by Robert Lawson, followed from Putnam. White went on to write The Witch in the Wood (1939) and The Ill-Made Knight (1940). When he gathered the books as The Once and Future King in 1958, he substantially revised The Sword in the Stone, removing Madame Mim and the giant Galapas and adding the Wart's lessons among the ants and the wild geese, material first written for a final volume later published as The Book of Merlyn (1977).

Reception

The book was well received on both sides of the Atlantic and has remained a favourite of readers who meet Arthur through it before Malory. Walt Disney's animated film The Sword in the Stone (1963), based on the 1938 version, made Madam Mim and Archimedes widely known, and the musical Camelot drew on the later parts of the cycle.

Comparisons

• le-morte-darthur

  Malory gives the sword in the stone in a brief episode with a written inscription and the boy Arthur sent to fetch a sword for Kay; White keeps the scene and invents the whole education that comes before it.

• the-story-of-king-arthur-and-his-knights

  Howard Pyle's retelling for young readers gives the same scene with grave medieval pageantry, while White makes Ector, Kay and Pellinore comic country gentlemen.

• the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

  White's Robin Wood and Marian are a deliberate return to the greenwood outlaws of Pyle's Robin Hood, placed in Arthur's boyhood.

• the-hobbit

  Both books appeared in 1937-38 from English writers steeped in medieval literature, and both follow an unlikely hero guided by a wizard into a larger destiny.

• the-republic

  Plato designs an education to make rulers just; Merlyn's lessons in the moat and the mews are also an education for a future ruler, aimed against the rule of mere strength.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The night the Wart spends in the forest chasing Cully, and the three people he meets there: King Pellinore, Merlyn and Archimedes.
• Each transformation Merlyn gives the Wart, and what the creatures he meets believe about power and obedience.
• The pike in the moat and his view that only power counts.
• How Kay treats the Wart, and how that changes after the sword is drawn.
• The churchyard scene, where the creatures the Wart has known seem to stand by him as he pulls the sword.

Key terms and names

The Wart

The nickname of the boy Arthur, given because it rhymes roughly with Art; he does not know who his parents are.

Castle of the Forest Sauvage

Sir Ector's castle on the edge of a wild forest, where the Wart grows up with Kay.

The Questing Beast

A strange creature from Malory that King Pellinore has hunted for years without catching.

Mews

The building where trained hawks are kept; the Wart spends a night there as a merlin.

Squire

A young man who serves a knight and carries his arms; the Wart expects to be Kay's squire.

Uther Pendragon

The king of England whose death without a known heir leads to the test of the sword in the stone.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension How does the Wart first meet Merlyn, and what is unusual about the way Merlyn lives in time?
2. Comprehension What does the Wart learn from the pike in the moat, and how does he escape?
3. Comprehension Why does the Wart go into the churchyard in London, and what happens when he reports what he has done?
4. Interpretation Why does Merlyn teach the Wart by turning him into animals instead of by lectures and books?
5. Interpretation Kay first claims that he drew the sword. Why does he confess, and what does that show about him?
6. Interpretation White fills a medieval story with jokes about later times. How do the anachronisms change the way we see the knights and their world?
7. Big Question What kind of education best prepares a person to lead others: training in strength and skill, or learning to see the world through others' eyes?

Faith Connections

• 1 Samuel 16:1-13 (Scripture)

  Samuel passes over Jesse's older, impressive sons and anoints the youngest, David, who is out keeping sheep, because the Lord looks on the heart. The Wart, overlooked beside Kay, is chosen in the same surprising way.

• Mark 10:42-45 (Scripture)

  Jesus tells his disciples that whoever would be great must be a servant. The Wart draws the sword while running a squire's errand for Kay, and the book suggests that a good king begins as a willing servant.

• Proverbs 4:5-9 (Scripture)

  Get wisdom, get understanding; she will give your head a garland and a crown. Merlyn's whole teaching is a pursuit of wisdom that ends, quite literally, in a crown.

• Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, Book I (Great Conversation)

  Malory's version, printed by Caxton in 1485, has the Archbishop of Canterbury call the lords to a church in London, where the sword in the anvil proves the hidden boy Arthur king. White builds his whole book toward this scene.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: A good ruler must understand those he rules. The Wart, through Merlyn's transformations, learns how many different creatures live, what they fear and what kinds of rule they suffer, from the tyrant pike to the disciplined hawks. Kay is trained only to be a knight. Therefore it is the Wart, not Kay, who is fit to draw the sword and be king.

Rhetorical device: anachronism. White's narrator describes medieval people with references to much later inventions and customs, so that the jousting knights sound like hearty English country gentlemen of his own day.

Debate: Resolved: that Merlyn's lessons as animals were a better education for a king than training in arms.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Choose two of the Wart's transformations and explain what each teaches him about power or obedience, and how those lessons might help him as king.

Comparison with Le Morte d'Arthur: Read Malory's account of the sword in the stone in Book I and compare it with White's. What does each writer want the reader to feel when Arthur draws the sword?

Medical Lens

The book is not about medicine, but White's knowledge of falconry gives it some animal psychology, and one episode turns on disease. In the hawks' mews the Wart, as a merlin, must keep a vigil within reach of the old goshawk Cully, whom the other hawks treat as dangerous and unbalanced; White, who trained a goshawk himself, knew the nervous temper of such birds at first hand. In the 1938 wizards' duel, Madame Mim changes into a dragon and Merlyn defeats her by turning into the germs of several infectious diseases, a joke that depends on the germ theory of disease being common knowledge by the 1930s. The huntsman Twyti's grief over his hound Beaumont, killed by the boar, is one of the book's quiet scenes of mourning. Any modern reading of these episodes is interpretive.

• The hawks' mews episode

  The Wart, changed into a merlin, keeps a night vigil beside the dangerous old goshawk Cully as an ordeal of courage set by the other hawks.

  Madness Psychosis
• The Madame Mim episode (1938 text only)

  In the shape-changing duel Merlyn becomes the microbes of a number of diseases and destroys the witch in her dragon form.

  Fever Infection
• The boar hunt

  Master Twyti weeps over his dead hound after the boar is killed.

  Grief

Creative Prompts

• Fiction

  Merlyn offers to turn you into any creature for one day. Choose an animal and write what you learn about how it lives and who rules over it.

• Classroom

  Make a chart of the Wart's transformations and adventures. For each, write what creature or company he joins and one thing it teaches a future king.

• Dialogue

  Write the conversation between Kay and the Wart on the evening after Kay confesses that the Wart pulled the sword.

• Essay

  Compare the sword-in-the-stone scene in White with the same scene in Malory. What does White add, and why?

Further Reading

• The Once and Future King, T. H. White

  The complete cycle, with the revised version of The Sword in the Stone as Book I.

• The Book of Merlyn, T. H. White

• The Goshawk, T. H. White

  White's account of training a hawk, background for the mews episode.

• T. H. White: A Biography, Sylvia Townsend Warner