Why You Should Read 'The Sword In The Stone'
A work of high-fantasy slapstick humour, set in the age of chivalry
Well before T.H. White’s tales of King Arthur were compiled into his now-classic tetralogy The Once and Future King, he had first published The Sword in the Stone as a stand-alone work in 1938. It is truly unique in its storytelling, meandering through numerous supernatural occurrences which collectively form a patchwork of education for its young protagonist, helping him to grow into the legendary king.
The Sword in the Stone is a work of high-fantasy, which makes no pretenses to be grounded actual history — much less any version of a historic Arthur, what little can be gleaned of him. In order to achieve the desired look of knights in shining armor, White’s Arthur is anachronistically placed smack dab in the middle of the 1400s. And liberated from any burden of realism, White takes full advantage and rejects the more serious fantasy of anything like, say Middle Earth. Indeed, The Sword in the Stone is a totally bizarre experience which is often slapstick in its humour, and is sometimes downright goofy.
Young Wart’s feet are set upon a path of discovery as his spoiled-rotten half-brother Kay gets him lost in the deep forest, where he is frightfully made to spend the night.
“Wart would not have been frightened of an English forest nowadays, but the great jungle of Old England was a different matter. The mad and wicked animals were not the only inhabitants of the crowded gloom. There were magicians in the forest…as well as strange animals not known to modern works of natural history. There were regular bands of Saxon outlaws, who lived together and wore green and shot with arrows which never missed. There were even a few dragons, though these were small ones, which lived under stones and could hiss like a kettle.”
But it is in that Forest Sauvage where Wart first meets all kings of colourful characters, like the charming King Pellinore and the outlaw Robin Wood. And it is from that forest which Wart proudly emerges with a tutor! The legendary Merlyn who will provide him with an education, one grounded in transformative experiences with the surrounding animal kingdom. In that sense, the book strangely meanders into animal-fiction at times, enhancing the unique weirdness of this tale.
Merlyn’s old stone cottage is chock-full of enchantments and treasures for a little boy to ponder, as Merlyn is apparently living backwards through time, and possesses many curiosities from future days to come. As Merlyn himself puts it:
"I unfortunately was born at the wrong end of time, and I have to live backwards from in front, while surrounded by a lot of people living forwards from behind.”
And it is from under Merlyn’s strange animalistic tutelage that the future King Arthur shall emerge — or had already emerged, depending on your perspective in time.
It seems to be a moral of the story that a wise ruler is willing to learn from his subjects in humility. And through Merlyn’s upbringing, the young Arthur ultimately learns that such governance should start with those whom mankind has dominion over. In that regard, Arthur’s animal experiences culminate in the ability to triumph over that miraculous sword which lay stuck in a churchyard stone.
All things considered, it is T.H. White’s strong penmanship that carries this strange tale along so fluidly, able to convert even the most high-browed cynic into a willing passenger on a strange ride.
