Summary: Chapter 7
Lancelot and Guenever have a few tender moments before
Guenever starts to fear that someone will discover them. Just as
she is pushing Lancelot toward the door, they see that someone is
trying to free the lock. Mordred, Agravaine, and twelve other fully
armed knights are waiting outside the door. Lancelot manages to
kill Agravaine and steal his sword and armor. He exchanges rings
with Guenever and steps outside to face his enemies.
Summary: Chapter 8
A week later, Gareth, Gawaine, Gaheris, and Mordred are
sitting in the Justice Room. Mordred is criticized for running away
from Lancelot, who slew all of the other knights outside of Guenever’s
chamber. Lancelot has since escaped back to his castle. Guenever
has been convicted of adultery and is to be burned at the stake.
Everyone expects Lancelot to rescue her. Arthur, at Mordred’s urging,
asks Gareth and Gaheris to join the guards who are already posted around
her. They go unwillingly, without their armor. Just as Guenever
is about to be burned, Lancelot and his knights arrive and rescue
her. Arthur and Gawaine are both elated, and Arthur begins to plan
out how their parties can be reconciled. Mordred returns from the
scene and tells them that Lancelot killed Gareth and Gaheris, even
though they were both unarmed. Neither Arthur nor Gawaine believes
Mordred at first. Gawaine goes to confirm the news and returns heartbroken
after finding Gareth and Gaheris dead.
Summary: Chapter 9
Six months later, Lancelot and Guenever are in Lancelot’s
castle, called Joyous Gard, which is under siege. Lancelot
tells Guenever that he does not remember killing Gareth and Gaheris,
but that he may well have done so in the confusion. Guenever decides
that the only way to save themselves, and Arthur, is to ask the
Church to intervene.
Summary: Chapter 10
The Church agrees to mediate a peace. Back in Camelot,
the bishop of Rochester presides over the decision. Lancelot is
banished from England, and Guenever returns to Arthur. Gawaine swears,
however, that he will still try to get his revenge on Lancelot.
Summary: Chapter 11
Arthur and Gawaine follow Lancelot to France and place
one of his castles under siege. Back in England, Guenever and her
maid Agnes are knitting together in her chambers when Mordred enters.
He is now quite mad, excessively dandy, and consumed by cruelty.
He has founded a new political order, called the Thrashers, who
speak of the old Gaelic wars and want to massacre Jews. Mordred
tells Guenever that he plans to announce that Arthur and Gawaine
have been killed in France and that he is the new king of England.
Mordred also tells Guenever that he intends to take her as his wife.
Summary: Chapter 12
In Arthur’s tent on the battlefield in France, Gawaine
is trying to recover from a blow he receives during a fight with
Lancelot. It is the second time Lancelot has defeated Gawaine and
the second time Lancelot has chosen not to kill him. The bishop
of Rochester enters with a letter from Guenever. It tells Arthur
about Mordred’s plot. Arthur decides to lift the siege and return
to England immediately. Gawaine, who is badly injured, insists on
going as well, anxious to wreak revenge on his treacherous brother.
Summary: Chapter 13
In his castle, Lancelot has just received a
letter from Gawaine, who is now in England, telling him what Mordred
has done. Gawaine writes that Guenever and her allies are defending
themselves in the Tower of London, which Mordred is attacking with cannons.
Gawaine forgives Lancelot for killing Gareth and Gaheris and asks
him to return to England to help Arthur. He adds that his wound
from Lancelot has reopened in battle and that he has been “hurt
to the death.” Lancelot and his comrades decide to return to England
at once.
Summary: Chapter 14
Arthur is in his pavilion on the battlefield at Kent,
where his forces are fighting Mordred’s army. It is late at night
and he is working on his laws. Arthur begins to think about the
reasons for war and what can be done to stop it from occurring.
He calls for a page named Thomas Malory and tells him that Malory
must remember the story of King Arthur, particularly the idea that
might must be used for right. Arthur asks Malory to spread Arthur’s
message of justice and peace. Malory agrees to do so, and after
Malory leaves, Arthur begins to cry. He thinks of the lessons he
learned from the animals when he was a young boy. He wakes up with
a fresh mind, hopeful for the day when his dream will be fulfilled.
He stands up and prepares himself for his final battle.
Analysis: Chapters 7–14
In this section, the delicate relationships between Arthur,
Guenever, Lancelot, and the Orkney faction quickly unravel. The
first step in the final destruction of Camelot is Mordred and Agravaine’s
discovery of Lancelot in Guenever’s room. Although Lancelot saves
himself from being killed, he has promised Arthur that he will not
kill Mordred, and he is forced to leave one witness alive. Mordred
then accuses Guenever of adultery. Arthur must follow his own laws
and honor the accusation. Arthur’s deeply ambivalent feelings about
the situation are reflected in his unwillingness to take any personal action
to save Guenever and in his fervent hope that Lancelot will rescue
her. The second step in the collapse of Arthur’s reign is Lancelot’s
accidental killing of Gareth and Gaheris. Since the only account
of their deaths comes from Mordred, we are never sure that Lancelot
is their killer. Lancelot does not think he killed the two men,
but he lies about why he was in Guenever’s room, and thus we cannot
be certain that he is not simply concealing an evil deed. The ambiguity
of Lancelot’s guilt makes Arthur’s position even more difficult.
He cannot be sure that his best friend is guilty of killing Gareth
and Gaheris, but he has to take decisive action against him.
The tone and pacing of the narrative in these last chapters
differs from the tone and pace of the narrative in the earlier books
of The Once and Future King. Unlike the slow, satirical,
and sometimes frivolous description of the Wart’s childhood in Book
I, or the fast-paced action scenes of Lancelot’s numerous quests
and battles in Book III, the narrative in Book IV is jumpy, episodic,
subtle, ominous, and mysterious. White constantly switches the narrative
from one conversation to another, and we learn about events from
a wide variety of perspectives. For example, we hear about Gawaine’s
battles with Lancelot and Guenever’s flight from Mordred after they occur.
White shapes the narrative in this way for a reason: the final book
is extremely short, but its plot is complicated, so there is not enough
space for the kinds of descriptions that we find in Book III. The
length of the book is not the only reason for its choppy, fragmented
style, however. Another reason is that the story is no longer trying
to sidestep the issue of Camelot’s demise, since its downfall is now
imminent and unavoidable. Instead, the novel describes what is left
of Arthur’s empire in a manner that reflects how fragmented the kingdom
has become.
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