Sunday, October 28, 2007

The Once and Future King: Post 3, The Ill-Made Knight

Lancelot now comes into the story and so does Guenever. Lancelot is driven by his desire to become the best knight ever, and by Arthur's request he travels to england to become a knight of the round table. Lancelot does not tell his parents that he is leaving, only his uncle.

Guenever is a very self-independent girl, but I find her character hard to explain. T. H. White does describe her well though. He says, "There is a story that her hair was yellow, but it was not. It was so black that it was startling, and her blue eyes, deep and clear, had a sort of fearlessness which was startling, too" (White 345).

The other new character is Nimue. Merlyn loves Nimue and teaches her magic, even though he knows she's going to steal his secrets and seal him in a cave for a few centuries.

Arthur's biggest problem is that his best friend (and best knight), Lancelot, falls in love with his wife, Guenever. Arthur had known about this even before he knew Lancelot and Guenever. White reminds us of this by writing, "Arthur had been warned about this by Merlyn- who was now safely locked up in his cave by the fickle Nimue- and had been fearing it subconsciously. But he always hated knowing the future and had managed to dismiss it from his mind" (349). Arthur's immediate instinct is to separate the two. Lancelot and Arthur soon agree that they won't let Guenever come between them, but as T.H. White says only, "the first few years were safely past" (352). Although, T.H. White goes on to say "The first thing Lancelot knew after she had kissed the King, was that she was able to come between them after all" (354).

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