History Literature / TheOnceAndFutureKing

* FoodChains: Subverted in Arthur's and Kay's faerie sojourn, where they're not in the least tempted by any of the food they encounter because it's awful.

* {{Foil}}: Gawaine and Aglovale - when the accidental death of King Lot to King Pellinore leads Gawaine to start a BloodFeud with the Pellinores, Arthur asks, nearly begs, Aglovale to end it after both families have lost a father and a brother, because the Kingdom and the Law cannot stand if they're to be forever divided by feuding. Aglovale, after giving it much thought, does. Later on, he is one of those killed by Lancelot's knights in the rescue of Guenever from the stake, where the deaths of Gawaine's brothers trigger the feud that will eventually tear down the kingdom, because no matter how much Arthur begs, Gawaine cannot forgive. [[spoiler: Until his deathbed.]]

* MommasBoy: Morgause's alternately neglectful and obsessive mothering of the Orkney boys through life is the principal driver of the tragedy. Gareth comes out best, being the most level-headed and noble. Gawaine too, except it inculcated in him [[BloodFeud the inability to forgive people who killed his family members]]. [[FlatCharacter Gaheris]] was impressionable and followed those brothers. But Agravaine ended up with confused sexual feeling for Morgause, and Mordred... Mordred was left alone with her for twenty years after his brothers went to Camelot. It eventually [[BastardBastard drove him mad]].

** 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 [[BloodFeud 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.
** TragicMistake: Arthur slept with his sister, albeit unknowingly. When Mordred was born, after prophecies and warnings made him fearful, nineteen-year-old Arthur had him, and other babies born on the same day, cast adrift to die at sea. That one sin, which [[TheAtoner he spends the rest of his life atoning for]], is what eventually brings his kingdom to ruin. Lancelot, during the final rescue of Guenever from the stake, laid about himself with his sword and unknowingly killed the unarmed Gareth, whom he loved, and his brother Gaheris, driving Gawaine to pursue him in a BloodFeud.

* AntWar: One of the animal transformations Merlyn performs on Wart is to turn him into an ant, and he finds himself in the middle of an ant war. Luckily he gets out of it before things turn nasty.

# ''[[Main/OriginsEpisode The Sword in the Stone]]'', covering Arthur's childhood, the lessons he was taught by Myth/{{Merl|in}}yn (in which he transforms him into animals in order to give him a different perspective on the world), how he was discovered and crowned King of England.
# ''[[Main/DarkerAndEdgier The Queen of Air and Darkness]]'', covers the early part of Arthur's reign, the founding of the Knights of the Round Table, and introduces Morgause, the mother of Arthur's nemesis Mordred.
# ''[[Main/ADayInTheLimeLight The Ill-Made Knight]]'', focuses on Sir Lancelot as he begins to fall in love with the Queen, while championing Arthur's vision of a better world.
# ''[[Main/GrandFinale 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.

* The musical ''Theatre/{{Camelot}}'' is based on ''The Ill-Made Knight'' and ''The Candle in the Wind''. The original cast boasted Creator/RichardBurton as Arthur and Creator/JulieAndrews as Guenever. The 1967 film adaptation boasted Creator/RichardHarris as Arthur and Creator/VanessaRedgrave as Guenever.

* LampshadeHanging: Merlyn does this ''constantly'', since he's basically GenreSavvy due to moving backwards through time. Some of his most marvelous ones spiral off into funny and inspiring sermons about learning and the nature of spoken language.

-->'''Lancelot''': The man with the strongest arm in a clan gets made the head of it, and does what he pleases. That is why why call it Fort Mayne. You want to put an end to the Strong Arm, by having a band of knights who believe in justice rather than strength. Yes, I would like to be one of those very much.

* FunetikAccent: Sir Gawaine intentionally keeps his ''very'' thick Scottish brogue, even though he, like his brothers, can speak perfect English.

* AllohistoricalAllusion: Crossed with AnachronismStew below; the book doesn't explicitly take place in an alternate universe, but whenever the narrator makes reference to a real-life medieval English monarch, he'll refer to them as "legendary" or "imaginary."

* FunetikAccent: The Orkney clan all boast a thick Scottish brogue that can be hard to read unless it's being read aloud.

* AlliterativeAppeal: Justified as the narrator explains that it's actually a naming custom but the Orkney brothers all have the letter G: Gawaine, Agravain, Gaheris and Gareth.
** Their mother and her sister also follow this as Morgause and Morgan (le Fay).

* IdiotBall: While he's in France, King Arthur appoints Sir Mordred as Lord Protector of England even though he knows that Sir Mordred has in it for him and caused the exile of Lancelot, leaving Modred in the perfect position to make a run at the throne.

** MeaningfulName: T.H. White refers to King Arthur's Britain as "Gramarye", an archaic term for magic. It comes from Old French and more accurately refers to any book of magic.

* AffectionateNickname: Both Arthur and Lancelot fondly refer to Queen Guenever as "Jenny" [[AnachronismStew as "Jennifer" is the modern English equivalent of "Guenever"]].
** And of course, Arthur and Guenever both affectionally call their favorite knight, "Lance".

* AffectionateNickname: Both Arthur and Lancelot fondly refer to Queen Guenever as "Jenny" ([[AnachronismStew "Jennifer" being the modern English equivalent of "Guenever"]]).

** And then there's Sir Ector, who was Arthur's childhood guardian and Sir Ector De Maris, who is cousins with Sir Bors and Sir Lionel.

* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Sir Bors the younger. The book is quick to frequently call him out as a misogynist... but he's also one of the three knights that achieved the Holy Grail. Not to mention how he's fiercely loyal to Lancelot and agreed to be the Queen's champion when Lancelot wasn't around even though it's been made ''very'' clear he can't stand her.

''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''. It was originally published as separate books from 1938 to 1941 and collected in one volume in 1958. The 1958 version contains:

* "The Sword in the Stone" has also been two dramatisations for BBC Radio; once in 1939 and again in 1982 featuring Sir Michael Hordern as Merlyn (who also played Gandalf the year before in BBC Radio 4's version of "The Lord of the Rings".
* The musical ''Theatre/{{Camelot}}'' is based on ''The Ill-Made Knight'' and ''The Candle in the Wind''.

''The Once and Future King'' is a retelling by T. H. White of the story 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 Sword in the Stone'' was loosely adapted into a [[Disney/TheSwordInTheStone Disney film of the same name]]. "The Sword in the Stone" has also been two dramatisations for BBC Radio; once in 1939 and again in 1982 featuring Sir Michael Hordern as Merlyn (who also played Gandalf the year before in Brian Sibley's version of "The Lord of the Rings". The musical ''Theatre/{{Camelot}}'' is based on ''The Ill-Made Knight'' and ''The Candle in the Wind''. In 2014, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a six-part adaptation including elements from ''The Book of Merlyn'', adapted by Brian Sibley (who also dramatised ''The Lord of the Rings'' for BBC Radio in the 1980s) and featuring Creator/DavidWarner as Merlyn. It can be heard for free on Soundcloud [[https://soundcloud.com/brian-sibley/sets/the-once-and-futurte-king here]].

''The Sword in the Stone'' was loosely adapted into a [[Disney/TheSwordInTheStone Disney film of the same name]]. The musical ''Theatre/{{Camelot}}'' is based on ''The Ill-Made Knight'' and ''The Candle in the Wind''. In 2014, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a six-part adaptation including elements from ''The Book of Merlyn'', adapted by Brian Sibley (who also dramatised ''The Lord of the Rings'' for BBC Radio in the 1980s) and featuring Creator/DavidWarner as Merlyn. It can be heard for free on Soundcloud [[https://soundcloud.com/brian-sibley/sets/the-once-and-futurte-king here]].

* EternalHero: Lampshaded and parodied in ''The Candle in the Wind'', where Merlyn (who was born an old man at the end of the universe and lives his life backwards in time to an eventual death as a baby during the Big Bang) devotes a couple of paragraphs to [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall confusing Arthur by criticizing future retellings of his legend]], [[GenreSavvy mercilessly savaging White's version ("Imagine, beginning with the Normans and ending with the Wars of the Roses")]] for using ComicBookTime to allow Arthur and the others to [[MindScrew live through centuries of history while simultaneously only living for normal human lifespans.]]

--> ''--- Merlyn''