The Istoriaphile’s Corner

Is it true that children no longer read The Sword in the Stone?  A friend of mine with kids says so.  Between dystopias, vampires, diseases and monsters, kids are skipping the fantasy that stood the  Arthurian legend on its head and that makes me sad.  Almost two generations of readers have come of age with no idea of White beyond a Disney movie or a Broadway show their grandparents talked about.  Forgive them, Merlin, they don’t know what they’ve missed. For one thing, they skip on a wonderful story with a  delicious sense of humor.  Malory  wrote about Arthur’s birth in Le Morte D’Arthur but we never get to see the young prince grow up; he goes from infant to sword-puller in less than a thousand words and there’s no guessing what happened in between.  T. H. White invented all that by mixing modern sensibilities with chivalric legends and he did it with a sense of humor. One good example (a disgusting one but good) is the subject of fewmets, something the roaming King Pellinore knows a good deal about.  His sole object in life is to chase after the Questing Beast and a required part of the hunt is…