by T. H. White
‘Man is the king of the animals.’
‘Perhaps. Or ought one to say the tyrant? And then again we do have to admit that he has a quantity of vices.’
‘King Pellinore has not got many.’
‘He would go to war, if King Uther declared one. Do you know that Homo sapiens is almost the only animal which wages war?’
‘Ants do.’
‘Don’t say “Ants do” in that sweeping way, dear boy. There are more than four thousand different sorts of them, and from all those kinds I can only think of five which are belligerent. There are the five ants, one termite that I know of, and Man.’
‘But the packs of wolves from the Forest Sauvage attack our flocks of sheep every winter.’
‘Wolves and sheep belong to different species, my friend. True warfare is what happens between bands of the same species. Out of the hundreds of thousands of species, I can only think of seven which are belligerent. Even Man has a few varieties like the Esquimaux and the Gypsies and the Lapps and certain Nomads in Arabia, who do not do it, because they do not claim boundaries. True warfare is rarer in Nature than cannibalism. Don’t you think that is a little unfortunate?’
‘Personally,’ said the Wart. ‘I should have liked to go to war, if I could have been made a knight. I should have liked the banners and the trumpets, the flashing armour and the glorious charges. And oh, I should have liked to do great deeds, and be brave, and conquer my own fears. Don’t you have courage in warfare, Badger, and endurance, and comrades whom you love?’
The learned animal thought for a long time, gazing into the fire.
In the end, he seemed to change the subject.
‘Which did you like best,’ he asked, ‘the ants or the wild geese?’
Chapter XXII
King Pellinore arrived for the important week—end in a high state of flurry.
‘I say,’ he exclaimed, ‘do you know? Have you heard? Is it a secret, what?’
‘Is what a secret, what?’ they asked him.
‘Why, the King,’ cried his majesty. ‘You know, about the King?’
‘What’s the matter with the King?’ inquired Sir Ector. ‘You don’t say he’s comin’ down to hunt with those demned hounds of his or anythin’ like that?’
‘He’s dead,’ cried King Pellinore tragically. ‘He’s dead, poor fellah, and can’t hunt any more.’
Sir Grummore stood up respectfully and took off his cap of maintenance.
‘The King is dead,’ he said. ‘Long live the King.’
Everybody else felt they ought to stand up too, and the boys’ nurse burst into tears.
‘There, there,’ she sobbed. ‘His loyal highness dead and gone, and him such a respectful gentleman. Many’s the illuminated picture I’ve cut out of him, from the Illustrated Missals, aye and stuck up over the mantel. From the time when he was in swaddling bands, right through them world towers till he was a—visiting the dispersed areas as the world’s Prince Charming there wasn’t a picture of ‘im but I had it out, aye, and give ‘im a last thought o’ nights.’
‘Compose yourself, Nannie,’ said Sir Ector.
‘It is solemn, isn’t it?’ said King Pellinore, ‘what? Uther the Conqueror, 1066 to 1216.’
‘A solemn moment,’ said Sir Grummore. ‘The King is dead. Long live the King.’
‘We ought to pull down the curtains,’ said Kay, who was always a stickler for good form,’ or half—mast the banners.’
‘That’s right,’ said Sir Ector. ‘Somebody go and tell the sergeant—at—arms.’
It was obviously the Wart’s duty to execute this command, for he was now the junior nobleman present, so he ran out cheerfully to find the sergeant. Soon those who were left in the solar could hear a voice crying out, ‘Nah then, one—two, special mourning fer ‘is lite majesty, lower awai on the command Two!’ and then the flapping of all the standards, banners, pennons, pennoncells, banderolls, guidons, streamers and cognizances which made gay the snowy turrets of the Forest Sauvage.
‘How did you hear?’ asked Sir Ector.
‘I was pricking through the purlieus of the forest after that Beast, you know, when I met with a solemn friar of orders grey, and he told me. It’s the very latest news.’
‘Poor old Pendragon,’ said Sir Ector.
‘The King is dead,’ said Sir Grummore solemnly. ‘Long live the King.’
‘It is all very well for you to keep on mentioning that, my dear Grummore,’ exclaimed King Pellinore petulantly, ‘but who is this King, what, that is to live so long, what, accordin’ to you?’
‘Well, his heir,’ said Sir Grummore, rather taken aback.
‘Our blessed monarch,’ said the Nurse tearfully, ‘never had no hair. Anybody that studied the loyal family knowed that.’
‘Good gracious!’ exclaimed Sir Ector. ‘But he must have had a next—of—kin?’
‘That’s just it,’ cried King Pellimore in high excitement. ‘That’s the excitin’ part of it, what? No hair and no next of kin, and who’s to succeed to the throne? That’s what my friar was so excited about, what, and why he was asking who could succeed to what, what? What?’
‘Do you mean to tell me,’ exclaimed Sir Grummore indignantly, ‘that there ain’t no King of Gramarye?’
‘Not a scrap of one,’ cried King Pellinore, feeling important. ‘And there have been signs and wonders of no mean might.’
‘I think it’s a scandal,’ said Sir Grummore. ‘God knows what the dear old country is comin’ to. Due to these lollards and communists, no doubt.’
‘What sort of signs and wonders?’ asked Sir Ector.
‘Well, there has appeared a sort of sword in a stone, what, in a sort of church. Not in the church, if you see what I mean, and not in the stone, but that sort of thing, what, like you might say.’
‘I don’t know what the Church is coming to,’ said Sir Grummore.
‘It’s in an anvil,’ explained the King.
‘The Church?’
‘No, the sword.’
‘But I thought you said the sword was in the stone?’
‘No,’ said King Pellinore. ‘The stone is outside the church.’
‘Look here, Pellinore,’ said Sir Ector. ‘You have a bit of a rest, old boy, and start again. Here, drink up this horn of mead and take it easy.’
‘The sword,’ said King Pellinore, ‘is stuck through an anvil which stands on a stone. It goes right through the anvil and into the stone. The anvil is stuck to the stone. The stone stands outside a church. Give me some more mead.’
‘I don’t think that’s much of a wonder,’ remarked Sir Grummore. ‘What I wonder at is that they should allow such things to happen. But, you can’t tell nowadays, what with all these Saxton agitators.’
‘My dear fellah,’ cried Pellinore, getting excited again, ‘it’s not where the stone is, what, that I’m trying to tell you, but what is written on it, what, where it is.’
‘What?’
‘Why, on its pommel.’
‘Come on, Pellinore,’ said Sir Ector. ‘You just sit quite still with your face to the wall for a minute, and then tell us what you are talkin’ about. Take it easy, old boy. No need for hurryin’. You sit still and look at the wall, there’s a good chap, and talk as slow as you can.’
‘There are words written on this sword in this stone outside this church,’ cried King Pellinore piteously, ‘and these words are as follows. Oh, do try to listen to me, you two, instead of interruptin’ all the time about nothin’, for it makes a man’s head go ever so.’
‘What are these words?’ asked Kay.
‘These words say this,’ said King Pellinore, ‘so far as I can understand from that old friar of orders grey.’
‘Go on, do,’ said Kay, for the King had come to a halt.
‘Go on,’ said Sir Ector, ‘what do these words on this sword in this anvil in this stone outside this church, say?’
‘Some red propaganda, no doubt,’ remarked Sir Grummore.
> King Pellinore closed his eyes tight, extended his arms in both directions, and announced in capital letters, ‘Whoso Pulleth Out This Sword of this Stone and Anvil, is Rightwise King Born of All England.’
‘Who said that?’ asked Sir Grummore.
‘But the sword said it, like I tell you.’
‘Talkative weapon,’ remarked Sir Grummore sceptically.
‘It was written on it,’ cried the King angrily. ‘Written on it in letters of gold.’
‘Why didn’t you pull it out then?’ asked Sir Grummore.
‘But I tell you that I wasn’t there. All this that I am telling you was told to me by that friar I was telling you of, like I tell you.’
‘Has this sword with this inscription been pulled out?’ inquired Sir Ector.
‘No,’ whispered King Pellinore dramatically. ‘That’s where the whole excitement comes in. They can’t pull this sword out at all, although they have all been tryin’ like fun, and so they have had to proclaim a tournament all over England, for New Year’s Day, so that the man who comes to the tournament and pulls out the sword can be King of all England for ever, what, I say?’
‘Oh, father,’ cried Kay. ‘The man who pulls that sword out of the stone will be the King of England. Can’t we go to the tournament, father, and have a shot?’
‘Couldn’t think of it,’ said Sir Ector.
‘Long way to London,’ said Sir Grummore, shaking his head.
‘My father went there once,’ said King Pellinore.
Kay said, ‘Oh, surely we could go? When I am knighted I shall have to go to a tournament somewhere, and this one happens at just the right date. All the best people will be there, and we should see the famous knights and great kings. It does not matter about the sword, of course, but think of the tournament, probably the greatest there has ever been in Gramarye, and all the things we should see and do. Dear father, let me go to this tourney, if you love me, so that I may bear away the prize of all, in my maiden fight.’
‘But, Kay,’ said Sir Ector, ‘I have never been to London.’
‘All the more reason to go. I believe that anybody who does not go for a tournament like this will be proving that he has no noble blood in his veins. Think what people will say about us, if we do not go and have a shot at that sword. They will say that Sir Ector’s family was too vulgar and knew it had no chance.’
‘We all know the family has no chance,’ said Sir Ector, ‘that is, for the sword.’
‘Lot of people in London,’ remarked Sir Grummore, with a wild surmise. ‘So they say.’
He took a deep breath and goggled at his host with eyes like marbles.
‘And shops,’ added King Pellinore suddenly, also beginning to breathe heavily.
‘Dang it!’ cried Sir Ector, bumping his horn mug on the table so that it spilled. ‘Let’s all go to London, then, and see the new King!’
They rose up as one man.
‘Why shouldn’t I be as good a man as my father?’ exclaimed King Pellinore.
‘Dash it all,’ cried Sir Grummore. ‘After all, damn it all, it is the capital!’
‘Hurray!’ shouted Kay.
‘Lord have mercy,’ said the nurse.
At this moment the Wart came in with Merlyn, and everybody was too excited to notice that, if he had not been grown up now, he would have been on the verge of tears.
‘Oh, Wart,’ cried Kay, forgetting for the moment that he was only addressing his squire, and slipping back into the familiarity of their boyhood. ‘What do you think? We are all going to London for a great tournament on New Year’s Day!’
‘Are we?’
‘Yes, and you will carry my shield and spears for the jousts, and I shall win the palm of everybody and be a great knight!’
‘Well, I am glad we are going,’ said the Wart, ‘for Merlyn is leaving us too.’
‘Oh, we shan’t need Merlyn.’
‘He is leaving us,’ repeated the Wart.
‘Leavin’ us?’ asked Sir Ector. ‘I thought it was we that were leavin’?’
‘He is going away from the Forest Sauvage.’
Sir Ector said, ‘Come now, Merlyn, what’s all this about? I don’t understand all this a bit.’
‘I have come to say Good—bye, Sir Ector,’ said the old magician. ‘Tomorrow my pupil Kay will be knighted, and the next week my other pupil will go away as his squire. I have outlived my usefulness here, and it is time to go.’
‘Now, now, don’t say that,’ said Sir Ector. ‘I think you’re a jolly useful chap whatever happens. You just stay and teach me, or be the librarian or something. Don’t you leave an old man alone, after the children have flown.’
‘We shall all meet again,’ said Merlyn. ‘There is no cause to be sad.’
‘Don’t go,’ said Kay.
‘I must go,’ replied their tutor. ‘We have had a good time while we were young, but it is in the nature of Time to fly. There are many things in other parts of the kingdom which I ought to be attending to just now, and it is a specially busy time for me. Come, Archimedes, say Good—bye to the company.’
‘Good—bye,’ said Archimedes tenderly to the Wart.
‘Good—bye,’ said the Wart without looking up at all.
‘But you can’t go,’ cried Sir Ector, ‘not without a month’s notice.’
‘Can’t I?’ replied Merlyn, taking up the position always used by philosophers who propose to dematerialize. He stood on his toes, while Archimedes held tight to his shoulder – began to spin on them slowly like a top – spun faster and faster till he was only a blur of greyish light – and in a few seconds there was no one there at all.
‘Good—bye, Wart,’ cried two faint voices outside the solar window.
‘Good—bye,’ said the Wart for the last time – and the poor fellow went quickly out of the room.
Chapter XXIII
The knighting took place in a whirl of preparations. Kay’s sumptuous bath had to be set up in the box—room, between two towel—horses and an old box of selected games which contained a worn—out straw dart—board – it was called fléchette in those days – because all the other rooms were full of packing. The nurse spent the whole time constructing new warm pants for everybody, on the principle that the climate of any place outside the Forest Sauvage must be treacherous to the extreme, and, as for the sergeant, he polished all the armour till it was quite brittle and sharpened the swords till they were almost worn away.
At last it was time to set out.
Perhaps, if you happen not to have lived in the Old England of the twelfth century, or whenever it was, and in a remote castle on the borders of the Marches at that, you will find it difficult to imagine the wonders of their journey.
The road, or track, ran most of the time along the high ridges of the hills or downs, and they could look down on either side of them upon the desolate marshes where the snowy reeds sighed, and the ice crackled, and the duck in the red sunsets quacked loud on the winter air. The whole country was like that. Perhaps there would be a moory marsh on one side of the ridge, and a forest of a hundred thousand acres on the other, with all the great branches weighted in white. They could sometimes see a wisp of smoke among the trees, or a huddle of buildings far out among the impassable reeds, and twice they came to quite respectable towns which had several inns to boast of, but on the whole it was an England without civilization. The better roads were cleared of cover for a bow—shot on either side of them, lest the traveller should be slain by hidden thieves.
They slept where they could, sometimes in the hut of some cottager who was prepared to welcome them, sometimes in the castle of a brother knight who invited them to refresh themselves, sometimes in the firelight and fleas of a dirty little hovel with a bush tied to a pole outside it – this was the signboard used at that time by inns – and once or twice on the open ground, all huddled together for warmth between their grazing chargers. Wherever they went and wherever they slept, the east wind whistled in the reeds, and the
geese went over high in the starlight, honking at the stars.
London was full to the brim. If Sir Ector had not been lucky enough to own a little land in Pie Street, on which there stood a respectable inn, they would have been hard put to it to find a lodging. But he did own it, and as a matter of fact drew most of his dividends from that source, so they were able to get three beds between the five of them. They thought themselves fortunate.
On the first day of the tournament, Sir Kay managed to get them on the way to the lists at least an hour before the jousts could possibly begin. He had lain awake all night, imagining how he was going to beat the best barons in England, and he had not been able to eat his breakfast. Now he rode at the front of the cavalcade, with pale cheeks, and Wart wished there was something he could do to calm him down.
For country people, who only knew the dismantled tilting ground of Sir Ector’s castle, the scene which met their eyes was ravishing. It was a huge green pit in the earth, about as big as the arena at a football match. It lay ten feet lower than the surrounding country, with sloping banks, and the snow had been swept off it. It had been kept warm with straw, which had been cleared off that morning, and now the closeworn grass sparkled green in the white landscape. Round the arena there was a world of colour so dazzling and moving and twinkling as to make one blink one’s eyes. The wooden grandstands were painted in scarlet and white. The silk pavilions of famous people, pitched on every side, were azure and green and saffron and chequered. The pennons and pennoncels which floated everywhere in the sharp wind were flapping with every colour of the rainbow, as they strained and slapped at their flag—poles, and the barrier down the middle of the arena itself was done in chessboard squares of black and white. Most of the combatants and their friends had not yet arrived, but one could see from those few who had come how the very people would turn the scene into a bank of flowers, and how the armour would flash, and the scalloped sleeves of the heralds jig in the wind, as they raised their brazen trumpets to their lips to shake the fleecy clouds of winter with joyances and fanfares.