Summary: Chapter 20
Six years pass. Kay becomes more temperamental, insisting
on using weapons he cannot handle and challenging everybody to fights
in which he is invariably defeated. He begins to spend less time
with the Wart, since the Wart will soon be beneath Kay’s social
station, though it seems Kay is behaving in this way against his
will. The Wart is resigned to his fate as Kay’s squire.
Summary: Chapter 21
Merlyn tells the sulking Wart that the best thing for
sadness is to learn something new. Merlyn tells the Wart that this
is the last time he will be able to turn him into an animal, since
they will soon part ways. Merlyn then turns the Wart into a badger
and sends him to visit a wise badger. The Wart, however, in his
foul mood, wanders away from the badger’s lair and comes across
a hedgehog, whom he threatens to eat.
The Wart eventually returns to the badger’s lair and talks
to the badger, who tells the Wart a story about how man got dominion over
the animals. In the beginning, all animals looked like shapeless embryos.
God offered to alter each of them in three different ways. The animals
chose things like claws for digging and large teeth for cutting. Man
was the last embryo to choose, and he chose to stay just as God
made him. God therefore gave him dominion over the animals and the
ability to use any tool he wanted. The badger wonders, however,
whether man has turned his dominion into a kind of tyranny.
Summary: Chapter 22
When King Pellinore arrives for Kay’s knighting, he brings
important news: King Uther Pendragon has died without an heir. A
sword, which has been stuck all the way through an iron anvil and
into a stone underneath it, has appeared in front of a church in
London. On the sword are inscribed the words, “Whoso Pulleth Out
This Sword of this Stone and Anvil, is Rightwise King Born of All England.”
A tournament has been proclaimed for New Year’s Day so that men
from all over England can come to try to pull out the sword. Kay
convinces Sir Ector, Sir Grummore, and Sir Pellinore that they should
go to the tournament. While they are talking, the Wart and Merlyn
enter and Merlyn announces that he is leaving.
Summary: Chapter 23
On the day of the tournament, Kay is so excited that he
makes the group get up early and go to the jousting area an hour
before the jousts begin. When he arrives, Kay realizes that he has
left his sword at the inn, so he haughtily sends the Wart to go
back and get it. The inn is closed, however, when the Wart gets
there. In front of a nearby church, he sees a sword stuck in a stone.
He makes two unsuccessful attempts to pull out the sword. There
is a sudden stirring in the churchyard, and the Wart sees a congregation
of his old animal friends. With their encouragement, the Wart pulls
the sword from the stone with ease. The Wart brings the sword back
to Kay. Kay recognizes it as the sword that will determine the next
king of England and falsely claims that he was the one who pulled
it out of the stone. When Sir Ector presses Kay, however, Kay admits
that the Wart pulled it out. To the Wart’s horror, his beloved foster
father and brother both kneel before him, and he tearfully wishes
he had never found the sword.
Summary: Chapter 24
The Wart is accepted as king after repeatedly putting
the sword into the anvil and drawing it back out again. He receives
gifts from all over England. One day, Merlyn appears magically before
him. He tells the Wart that the Wart’s father was Uther Pendragon
and that Merlyn was the one who first brought the Wart to Sir Ector’s
castle as an infant. Merlyn tells the Wart that from now on he will
be known as King Arthur.
