Summary: Chapter 6
Why can’t you harness Might so that it
works for Right? . . . The Might is there, in the bad half of people,
and you can’t neglect it.
See Important Quotations Explained
Arthur stops by Merlyn’s room to ask his advice, but Merlyn
tells him that the king should always summon people to him. Merlyn
is summoned to the Royal Chamber an hour later, and he, Arthur, Kay,
and Sir Ector talk about the idea of chivalry. Arthur tells the others
that might does not equal right and that currently, knights do whatever
they please while the people slaughter, torture, and rape one another.
For example, Arthur says, there are knights like Sir Bruce Sans
Pitié, who rides around the country killing people and carrying
off maidens for sport. Might can be used to achieve right, Arthur
reasons, saying that he will use force to put down the Gaelic rebellion
and then try to harness this power for good by creating an order
of knights that will fight for just causes.
Summary: Chapter 7
Back in Orkney, King Pellinore, Sir Palomides, and Sir
Grummore go hunting for a unicorn with Morgause, who is trying to
make the three men fall in love with her. According to legend, a
unicorn can be caught only if a virgin attracts it, but despite
what the Orkney children think, Morgause does not fit the description.
The boys visit St. Toirdealblach, who tells them another story about
a witch. The Orkney boys decide to capture a unicorn to please their
mother. They coerce a kitchen maid into playing the virgin, binding
her to a tree in the forest. A unicorn appears and lays its head
in the kitchen maid’s lap with grace and majesty. Agravaine, seized
by a fit of passion, kills the unicorn, yelling incoherently that
the girl is his mother and the unicorn has dared to put its head
in her lap. They take the unicorn’s head home as a trophy, but Morgause
fails to notice it, and when she learns what they have done, she
has them whipped.
Summary: Chapter 8
On the plain of Bedegraine, before joining in battle with
King Lot and his forces, Arthur, Merlyn, and Kay make further plans
for Arthur’s order of knights. Arthur decides that the knights should
all sit at a round table, so that each of the places are equal.
Merlyn informs Arthur that King Leodegrance, whose daughter, Guenever, eventually
marries Arthur, has such a table. Merlyn also asks Arthur to remind
him to warn Arthur about Guenever in the future. Kay tells Merlyn
that he thinks it is right to start a war if he knows that a victory
will bring a better life to the conquered people. Merlyn angrily
tells Kay that it is much better to make ideas available than to
force them on others. Trembling with rage, he tells Kay that he knows
of an Austrian who shared Kay’s views and dragged the whole world
into bloody chaos.
Summary: Chapter 9
Sir Palomides and Sir Grummore create a costume that looks
like the Questing Beast and then convince King Pellinore that they
have spotted the beast on the island. Meanwhile, Morgause, her advances
spurned, decides that she hates the knights and that she loves her
children. Gareth runs to bring the others the good news that they
are forgiven, and he finds them squabbling. Agravaine wants to write
their father a letter telling him that Morgause has been cheating
on him with the English knights. This suggestion enrages Gawaine,
and when Agravaine pulls a knife to defend himself, Gawaine almost
kills him. That night, as Palomides and Grummore march in costume
to lead Pellinore on a hunt, they run into the real Questing Beast.
The beast mistakes them for another one of its species, falls in
love, and chases them halfway up a cliff.
Summary: Chapter 10
The night before the battle with King Lot, Merlyn reminds
Arthur that he will marry Guenever and that he must be wary of the
relationship between Guenever and Lancelot. He also tells Arthur
a parable with the moral that no one can escape fate.
Analysis: Chapters 6–10
In this section, with the help of Kay, Sir Ector, and
Merlyn, King Arthur continues to think about the ideology behind
his reign, which he hopes will thrive on fairness. The Round Table
is a symbol of this kind of government—a society so democratic that
even the king’s table is designed to prevent fighting and squabbling
over status. This table is the culmination of all that Merlyn and
his lessons have taught Arthur, even though Merlyn insists that
Arthur will have to do some of the thinking for himself. Even though
Arthur’s idea is noble, however, the novel never treats the project
as something glorious or easy. Rather, it appears to be a difficult
and tricky idea to implement. Every time we see Arthur and his advisers
discussing the idea of might versus right, they are trying to figure
out a way around a new obstacle, and the chapters rarely end happily. Merlyn,
who has so far been a compassionate and caring adviser to Arthur,
does not seem interested in making things easy for the young king
by allowing Arthur to compromise or adopt the system already in
place. Instead, Merlyn is driven by the age-old feuds and ethnic hatreds
that are tearing the country apart, and he almost seems to be using
Arthur as a weapon to right old wrongs. Life for the people of England
may soon improve, but we wonder if Arthur is dooming himself with
his own ideas.
White includes a contemporary historical reference in
the text. Kay argues that might can be used if a ruler discovers
an improved way of life and the people are too stubborn to convert.
Merlyn responds to Kay’s theory with outrage, likening him to an
unnamed Austrian who “tried to impose his reformation by the sword,
and plunged the civilized world into misery and chaos.” Since Merlyn lives
backward in time, the fact that this incident occurred in his youth
means that it occurred during our recent past. The incident is a
clear reference to Adolf Hitler, who as the leader of Germany from 1933 to 1945,
ordered the execution of million of Jews, as well as Gypsies, homosexuals,
and others, during World War II. In a story that is several centuries
old, White is again finding lessons and parables that are relevant
to the modern era. The problems that Arthur is trying to solve,
White warns, still exist, and he gives us contemporary examples
to drive his message home.
The Orkney children are described again in this section;
as their destructive behavior increases, so does our dislike for
their mother, Morgause. White’s biographer, Sylvia Townsend Warner,
reports that White’s publisher rejected the initial draft of this
novel because Morgause was depicted far too negatively. Townsend
Warner hypothesizes that while writing about Morgause, White was
working through some of his feelings toward his own mother, whom
he remembered as someone who was much more willing to take love than
to give it. Although White subsequently rewrote most of the novel,
toning down all the references to Morgause, some of the personal
emotion that drove the first draft still shows up in several of the
chapters. Agravaine’s claim that the unicorn has somehow violated
the children’s mother supports Warner’s psychological reading of
the novel, since Agravaine’s behavior shows an unhealthy fixation
with his mother’s sexual activity that far exceeds normal childish
behavior. The other children also bear psychological scars, as can
be seen in their earlier ill treatment of the donkeys, but they seem
to be strong enough to withstand them better than Agravainedoes.
Agravaine’s character has already been so poisoned by his uncontrollable
love for his mother that he is willing to pull a knife on his own
brother. With the exception of Gareth, who is a sweet and sensitive
child, the Orkney children fight in the most violent and disagreeable
ways, but it is hard to feel anything but sorry for them since they
have been so distorted by the evil Morgause.
The satire of knighthood, which begins in Book I with
the portrayal of Pellinore’s battle with Sir Grummore, continues
here with the description of the silly and lighthearted adventures
of Palomides, Pellinore, and Grummore. The adventures of the three knights
also provide comic relief from the unhappiness that prevails in
Morgause’s castle. The Once and Future King is
primarily a sad and contemplative novel, but it also tries to engage
its readers, and the adventures of Palomides, Pellinore, and Grummore
provide comic interludes that do not distract too much from the
novel’s weightier matters.
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