Talk:The Once and Future King

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Contents

[edit] Discussion

The discussion of Elaine in "The Ill-Made Knight" linked to the wrong Arthurian Elaine (there are a number of them, so this is hardly surprising). I corrected this.

-- TalynDerre —Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.99.94.242 (talk) 20:13, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm not entirely sure of the facts, but this article states that the MOVIE Camelot was made in 1967. It was a musical before, perhaps before the Disney movie. That's an idea.

-- Jsan 20:56, 5 Jan 2004 (UTC)


I grabbed this off of the article on T.H. White and was going to merge it here:

The early section of the book, describing Arthur's childhood and tuition by Merlin, was dropped from Camelot, but later adapted into the Disney animated film, The Sword in the Stone. An unpublished final section of the book was published after White's death, as The Book of Merlyn.

BUT:

  1. The first sentence is incorrect. The Disney movie (1961) predates Camelot (1967). Therefore, that cannot be correct.
  2. The second sentence already exists here.

--Raul654 20:41, 5 Jan 2004 (UTC)

But the play version of Camelot came before the movie version. I think the play opened in 1960. Kuralyov 02:06, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)

The book, taking place on the isle of Gramarye,

Is "the isle of Gramarye" more than or other than a poetic name for Great Britain here? Marnanel 02:04, Apr 24, 2004 (UTC)

From the book, I think it's supposed to mean Glastonbury. Kuralyov 02:06, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)
I don't think so: As early as the first chapters, White seems to use "Gramarye" to refer to the entire kingdom, including the Castle of Forest Sauvage, which is in the Welsh Marches. "Gramarye" would normally be used to refer specifically to a magical place (like Glastonbury), because its meaning comes from "book of magic." However, in TOaFK, it is clear that "Gramarye" is a much larger place, an entire kingdom (cf. Book I, ch. 14, "In other parts of Gramarye, of course, there did exist wicked and despotic masters...." writingjen 16:29, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

I changed 'Arthur invents chivalry' to 'reinvents' because on more than one occassion Merlyn refers to the Old Chivalry which Uther Pendragon promoted. This is the Old Chivalry which the Orkney Faction employs in volumes 2-4.Cariel 15:23, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

White spells the Queen's name "Guenever" not the traditional "Guinevere," so I added in a reference in the beginning to this. In which way should the rest of the article refer to her as? I left it as is, except for a mention at the beginning but I'm not sure if it should maybe be changed to follow how White has it. Crito2161 19:03, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

  • My copy also has "Launcelot" instead of the more common "Lancelot". Should there be a mention of this, or is this a regional spelling difference, like "colour" instead of "color"?Pooneil 07:13, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

This book is also mentioned in H. G. Wells - The Sleeper Wakes, one of the books in the future.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 213.249.231.6 (talk • contribs) 3 December 2006.

[edit] Archimedes

On the archimedes disambiguation page, it says that Merlin's owl is named Archimedes here. And in the disney movie of Sword in the Stone, he also has a talking own named Archimedes. I just think that's interesting because Richard Harris, in his role as Arthur in the musical Camelot, says "We have an owl here that talks, called Archimedes". Is this Archimedes a part from the original myth, or was he invented here and they copied it? --Mithcoriel 15:40, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

In case you're still waiting for someone to tell you, both the musical and the Disney movie are adapted from this book (which you'd have learned if you'd read the articles on them). Archimedes is not part of the original myth, he's a creation of T.H. White. Themill —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.208.120.38 (talk) 23:54, 12 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Plagarism

I'd like to point out that the contents of the section entitled "The Work as a Political Commentary" is a direct rip-off from the sparknotes webpage for the novel (http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/futureking/). Perhaps they ripped out their analysis from Wikipedia, but in either case someone is plagiarizing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.182.139.95 (talk • contribs)

I can't find anything that looks like an exact quote—yet; I'm still working on it. It can stay for now. —ScouterSig 15:24, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Blind Guardian

Since "the once and future king" is also a quote from the well-known tomb, isn't it more likely that Blind Guardian's song references the tomb, not the book? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 194.176.105.39 (talk)

[edit] XKCD

Hi, I saw this webcomic [1] and added the link in the trivia section. But I don't think I phrased the sentence properly. Anyone else wan't to give it a shot? --ISeeDeadPixels 14:18, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Parody

The Once and Future King is not a parody of the Arthurian tales. While, yes, the fist section, The Sword in the Stone is quite humorous, the rest of the book becomes increasingly serious and dark. 71.175.23.190 and I have now traded reverts and I want to ensure that an angry edit war does not take place. Am I right in my reading of the book? —ScouterSig 14:21, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

Yes, parody in the first book only, but satire throughout. --Quiddity 16:40, 12 September 2007 (UTC)
Because it is serious in text does not mean that it is not a parody; it is based off of an already existing text, and satirizes humanity. -71.175.23.190 07:44, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Satire is employed, but it's definitely not a parody. A parody is "a literary or musical work in which the style of an author or work is closely imitated for comic effect or in ridicule." White's work is far too broad to call it a parody of Malory's, and only parts of it are intended for comic effect. Plus, it draws from a much wider range of sources than just Malory. It's White's reworking of an entire body of legend. Themill

[edit] XMen reference: "When will they learn how to fly"?

In the writer's DVD commentary on X Men 2, one of the writers states that Magneto's comment "When will they learn how to fly?", is a reference to the fans complaining that the X Men did not fly in the first X Men movie (as they are apt to do in the comics).

So, the statement that it is a reference to an event in "Once and Future King" is not correct.

141.117.1.164 16:06, 23 September 2007 (UTC)