Book Review | The Once and Future King
By D.L. Gardner
The Once and Future King by T.H. White
It’s an old book, 1958, and I presume most people except me read it much earlier in life. If you have not, do! It’s a collection of short stories of the legend of King Arthur, although it reads like a continuous novel as the stories interconnect.
It’s the kind of book that, when finished, you feel as though you’ve just sat at a banquet with the most delicious food put in front of you, rare and beautiful plates of savory dishes from all over the world, from past and present, from appetizers to main course, to desserts. And here you are with pages finally closed and you must sit quietly with a cup of your favorite tea, or coffee, or fresh spring water, and digest it all. And you know that you will not be able to fully digest, nor forget, the flavors for the rest of your life.
Why does this book affect me like this?
Because it addresses the life of a king, his commander-in-chief, and his wife so thoroughly that I am certain I have met him. He is here living not in the past but today. A fictional character who was secretly nesting inside of me. My hopes and fears, weaknesses, strengths, with a strong will to do the right thing and yet falling short in the most critical times.
The balance between right and wrong, between tough love and mercy, between being engaging in war or vying for peace. Where is the fine line that humanity must follow when the results for either seem to be the same? When the fight for justice becomes unjust. When mercy becomes cruel. When violence seems to promise peace? Where is the line drawn when one must use might to keep from using might?
Are we truly seeing this in today’s world? Are the peacemakers using violence for their cause? Are the war mongers any worse? Has humanity forgotten to be humane? And what does that mean?
Arthur was tutored by a magical wizard who sent him to the animal kingdom to teach him an underlying truth that a child his age was unable to fully grasp. Not until the damage was done, the wars fought, the punishments applied, the lovers gone, did he discover that the answer to his quest had been given him as a little boy long before he even ventured out of his uncle’s fortress. A lesson we would all do well to learn if we ever want to live in harmony with our fellow man.
Both King Arthur and Sir Lancelot are not as fictional as one would suspect.
The Beautiful Lady Without Pity by John William Waterhouse.
