History Literature / TheOnceAndFutureKing

* DeathSeeker: Implied with Gawaine by the end of his crusade against Lancelot.

* PublicDomainCharacter: Apart from the obvious, Arthur meets RobinHood (who says his name is really Robin ''Wood'', but it's clearly the same person the legends are about) in ''The Sword in the Stone''. Several personages from Greco-Roman mythology, such as Neptune, Hecate, and Minerva, also make appearances in ''The Sword in the Stone'' (not to mention Castor and Pollux blowing Merlyn to Bermuda).

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: King Pellinore is much more affable than his counterpart in Malory.

* AdaptationDyeJob: Guenever is stated to have jet-black hair, although the narrator admits that in most stories, including the author's source material, she is blond.

* AssholeVictim: [[TheBully Sir Agravaine]] who stabbed Lamorak InTheBack and plotted to expose Lancelot and Gwenever's affair out of petty spite, he gets killed by Lancelot in the ensuing brawl. His own brother Gawain, usually overzealous about family honor, does not blame Lancelot. Gawain instead points out to an indignant Mordred that Agravaine's death was his own fault for not heeding Gawain's warning.

* OneSteveLimit: Averted. The narrator even goes as far as to point out to the reader how the Elaine of Corbin (who is in love with Lancelot) is not the same as Queen Elaine, sister to Queen Morgause and Morgan le Fey.

* MythologyGag[=/=]CrypticBackgroundReference: Since White wasn't planning to fit ''everything'' into the novel, occasionally characters will mention events that will be familiar to readers of Malory or other Arthuriana, but are only throwaway mentions to others. Probably the most obvious are the occasional mentions of [[Literature/TristanAndIseult the trouble between Sir Tristram and King Mark of Cornwall]], but there's also some subtle mythology jokes and [[DiscontinuityNod nods to inconsistencies and disagreements]] between stories.

* OedipusComplex: [[Main/WellDoneSonGuy All of the Orkney boys suffer from desperately wanting to please their]] [[EvilMatriarch mother, Morgause]]. But it's heavily implied that only Mordred and Aggravaine are sexually attracted to her. [[spoiler: [[{{Matricide}} To the point where they end up murdering her. Yikes.]]]]
** And in Mordred’s case, it’s implied [[ParentalIncest Morgause might have inculcated this before he could say yes or no]].

** And in turn, both Arthur and Guenever affectionally call their favorite knight, "Lance".

* ADateWithRosiePalms: Implied at one point; after Lancelot has returned from the Grail quest and Guenever is in the bath ruminating on how (despite his current conviction that he will be chaste) he is quite certain to resume their affair, the chapter ends with the narrator specifically noting that she's reached for a bath brush with an ivory handle.

* LoveTriangle: Arthur/Guenever/Lancelot, of course, although it doesn't fit any of the traditional TriangRelations as it's made very clear several times that while Gwen and Lance are very much into one another, they both love Arthur too (and he explicitly says that he loves them both dearly as well).
** LoveDodecahedron: It's not just Arthur/Guenever/Lancelot, it's explicitly Arthur/Guenever/Lancelot/''God'', with occasional complications from Elaine and Morgause.

* AdaptationDistillation: Widely considered one of the Great English Fantasy Novels, and the best modern retelling of Malory's ChivalricRomance Arthur.

* TheAce: Deconstructed with the Grail Knights, the "purest" of the Table. Sir Galahad is so inhumanly ''perfect'' that he is disliked by most of his fellow knights because he's impossible to relate to on a human level. Sir Bors is so religiously dogmatic he is willing to let harm or death come to others rather than sacrifice his own purity, and his almost-total celibacy is explicitly because he despises women. Only Sir Percivale is liked by the others, because White's Percivale is an innocent like his father Pellinore - simple, kind-hearted and a FriendToAllLivingThings - when Guenever opines that he seemed to "bumble towards the Grail", Arthur notes his goodness was no less good for that.

** FatalFlaw: Arthur's, sadly, is his innate decency and his sense of duty, refusing to see Mordred's scheming until it was too late. Because [[LawfulGood he feels he must be bound by his own laws too]], he will not rid himself of Mordred, and Mordred eventually uses Guenever and Lancelot's relationship as leverage to break the Table. Gawaine in turn is pathologically incapable of forgiving [[FeudingFamilies the deaths of his family]], and in seeking revenge against Lancelot for the deaths of Gareth and Gaheris, puts Mordred in position to seize the throne.

''The Once and Future King'' is a retelling by Creator/THWhite of Myth/KingArthur. It is considered one of the best retellings of Arthurian legend, heavily inspired by ''Literature/LeMorteDArthur''. It was originally published as separate books from 1938 to 1941 and collected in one volume in 1958. The 1958 version contains:

''The Once and Future King'' is a retelling by Creator/THWhite of the story of Myth/KingArthur. It is considered one of the best retellings of Arthurian legend, heavily inspired by ''[[Literature/LeMorteDArthur Le Morte d'Arthur]]''. It was originally published as separate books from 1938 to 1941 and collected in one volume in 1958. The 1958 version contains:

* TheFairFolk: [[OlderThanTheyThink Before Pratchett]] did this, the fairies in ''The Sword in the Stone'' were one of the earliest examples of these in modern fiction. Robin Wood said that they didn't have hearts, both literally and figuratively.

** Saint Toirdealbhach, like the Orkney boys, is violently inclined, irreligous and a slave to his vices, telling them stories of wars and death, though he does teach Gawaine, Gareth and Gaheris a rudimentary moral code and "the only culture they ever learned" in his stories. Agravaine and Mordred, being obsessed with their mother instead, never learn this.
** And Lancelot's uncle Dap, like him, is dedicated to his knighthood role to the point where he plays no part in the story outside it. Lancelot faces a similar constant struggle to do the same.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Lancelot fully shares everyone's horror and disbelief that he killed Gawaine's siblings. Only the corroboration of multiple witnesses confirm that Mordred didn't kill them himself to frame Lancelot, given how improbably it seems.

* AnachronismStew: Deliberately set in no particular time period, with historical references being often vague and frequently contradictory; Uther is made to be the leader of the Norman Conquest instead of William the Conquer, and is said to have lived from 1066 to 1216. In several cases, White justifies it by saying that some things referenced (such as the characters drinking Port or wanting to send their kids to Eton) weren't ''actually'' what was being said, but that more modern things were used to give readers a sense of what was being said. Of course, this version's Merlyn lives ''backwards'' through time, so he possesses objects and knowledge of the future (a certain madman who caused WWII, for instance, and he keeps guns in his house, as well as dressing in clothes that are unknown to those around him)

* AdaptationlNiceGuy: King Pellinore is much more affable than his counterpart in Malory.

# ''The Candle in the Wind'', telling of the downfall of Arthur and his kingdom, concluding with a [[BitCharacter bit appearance]] by Creator/ThomasMalory, still a squire, whom Arthur sends off to remember their story.