The Once And Future King: An Analysis

Bruce Lee once said, “Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.” And in Merlyn’s interpretation, knowledge is everything. In T.H. White’s magical book, The Once and Future King, Arthur, the soon to be king, and Merlyn, his magical tutor, go on numerous adventures as other creatures. Arthur’s education, taught by Merlyn, focuses on Might and Right . Some of the ways Merlyn teaches Arthur Might and Right is by transforming both of them into different animals. Three are the fish (or as it is called in the book a perch); a merlin; and an owl. And as these animals, he learns power, body capability, and how to control his words.
Merlyn teaches Arthur about power by turning him into a fish. “There is only power. Power is of the individual mind, but the mind’s power is not enough. Power of the

In order to be initiated to be a Merlin he has to stand by cully, but cully, Arthur’s bird, will realize it’s Arthur and start freaking out. When Arthur tells the rest of the Merlins he cannot and they ask why the narrator states, “The poor [Arthur] realised that now he must choose between confessing himself a human, and learning no more of their secrets, or going through with this ordeal to earn his education. He did not want to be a coward.” (White, 82) Arthur learns how to control his words because right before that quote he says he cannot do the initiation because he warned him, he being Merlyn and him being Arthur.
Arthur learns body capability as an owl. Archimedes, an owl who Merlyn knows, is teaching Arthur the ways of being an owl. He’s teaching Arthur how to land on a branch when he says, “You must stall. This means that you drive yourself up until you lose flying speed, and then, just as you feel yourself beginning to tumble- why, you sit down” (White, 162) Arthur learns body capability as an owl because he learns how to fly. Normally as a human, he would never learn how to fly because, well, he