“he curious thing was that under the king-post of keeping faith with himself and with others, he had a contradictory nature which was far from holy. Here, Lancelot is seen as basically fighting against contradictory passions – his love for the Queen, his love for Arthur, and his love for God and his principles.

The Ill-Made Knight – The third book shifts its focus from Arthur to his most famous knight, Lancelot and later, the quest for the Grail. This book also introduces the Orkney siblings, Gawaine, Gareth, Gaheris, and Agravaine, who will later become knights at Arthur’s court. This is where Arthur starts to articulate his ideas about Might vs Right and where the concept of the Round Table is first broached. While there’s still plenty of humour from the adventures of King Pellimore, Sir Grummore, and the Questing Beast, this book is definitely more sober in tone compared to the first. The Queen of Air and Darkness – In the second book, a young King Arthur (no longer Wart), fights to have the Kingdom under his rule. Although this book is markedly different from the rest, it sets the stage for the latter three books as Merlin’s teachings have a great impact on the way Arthur thinks.

Merlin isn’t a serious wizard here rather, he’s portrayed as an absent-minded man who lives out of time, resulting in a lot of anachronisms.

This was the most lighthearted of the books and focuses on the formative years of Arthur. But one day, he runs into a wizard named Merlin, who ends up becoming his (and Kay’s tutor). He lives with his foster father, Sir Ector, and his foster brother, Kay, where he will one day become Kay’s squire. The Sword in the Stone – The opening story, this book introduces King Arthur not as a noble knight-in-training, but as a boy nicknamed Wart. According to its Wikipedia page, this was actually four shorter works collected and revised into one longer novel, which makes sense since it’s basically four different stories. The Once and Future King is a retelling of Authurian legends. I took pretty much the whole week to read (it’s actually pretty long), but I LOVED it and it feels like such a good book to welcome the Christmas season with. I’ve been hearing fantastic things about this book for ages now, so I finally read it.

The once and future king arthur