Outside Reading

The Once and Future King, Part 1: The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White

The characters in my book, thus far, are the Wart, Kay, Merlyn.
The Wart is actually (soon to be king) Arthur, although he is called such because, "The Wart was called the Wart because it more or less rhymed with Art, which was short for his real name. Kay had given him the nickname" (White 3). The Wart is an adventuresome boy who blindly admires Kay. He is being raised by Sir Ector, Kay's father and is much like a brother to Kay. (You can easily tell this by their squabbles.) The Wart is constantly asking Merlyn to turn him into different animals and has been turned into a pike, a merlin, an ant, an owl, a goose, and a badger. The Wart looks up to Kay and seems to be envious of him, partially because he is older and will be knighted before him.

Kay is the son of Sir Ector. He is incredibly short tempered and is envious of Wart because Merlyn will not turn him (Kay) into animals. Kay knows that he will be knighted before the Wart, and uses this to provoke the Wart and make Kay, himself, feel superior. Kay acts very brotherly towards Wart.

Merlyn is the tutor to both Kay and Wart. Merlyn teaches Kay normal schooling while Wart gets to learn about magic and animals and such. Merlyn seems to be teaching Wart about different governments and ways of treating situations by turning him into animals and I'm pretty sure this plays into how Wart acts and how Wart will rule when he becomes King.

This first part of the book has very little conflict in it and is used to set up the characters of Wart and Merlyn for later on in the novel. Don't get me wrong, though, the novel is fascinating and at times hilarious. Thus far, there are also few/no similarities, but it is a long book, so it should have some similarities later on.