"The Once and Future King"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how T. H. White's book is an attempt upon the author's part to tell the story of King Arthur and the Round Table through new eyes, to a new audience. It shows how the book details Arthur's coming to power and his loss of power in four books. It is not simply as a history of nobility or the English crown, but chronicles an experimental ideal of justice advanced by Arthur during an earlier era of English history.

From the Paper:

"The equally anachronistic ideal of democracy in the Middle Ages is reflected in the book's symbolic use of the Round Table. The Round Table has no head, unlike a rectangular table. The rectangular table was the traditional table used by kings to administer their courts. The rectangular table has a "head," or a seat alone, where the presiding individual stands above and aloof from the others. But the round table of King Arthur does not have such a head. It does not have such a seat apart from the other knights, even for the king himself. During a meeting of Arthur and his knights, Arthur is an equal. During a council meeting, every knight has the same right to articulate his grievances."

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