The Once and Future King

This book is probably the definitive work on Arthurian legend. It seems that White has taken all the King Arthur legends and integrated them into one work. This epic is four stories: The Sword in Stone, The Queen of Air and Darkness, The Ill-Made Knight and The Candle in the Wind.

The Sword in Stone chronicles the life of Arthur as a child. He is known as Wart, and he has grown up in the castle of Sir Ector and his son Kay. Wart is brought up unaware of his parentage. He lives during a time of great turmoil in England. King Uther Pendragon is a bloody tyrant who lives out the maxim “Might makes right.” Enter Merlyn who is a powerful wizard who lives backwards through time. Meaning that he knows the end result but doesn’t know how things started to create the end result.