The Once and Future King (part 2) (T. H. White) | [The Witch in the Wood & The Ill-Made Knight]

Unabridged audiobook read by Neville Jason
The first book is ostensibly about how Arthur became King, but most of it sees him being brought up in a rural world that owes much to White's notions of an ideal childhood. Here, the young Arthur learns the ways of animals and the ways of nature; how to be honest and brave; and he gets the opportunity to talk to animals as one of them, thanks to the interventions of his tutor, the magician Merlyn. The second develops Merlyn's teachings on the issue of Might vs. Right, and sees the invention of the Round Table; but also introduces the theme of the sins of the fathers being visited on their sons.
Arthur's birth was the result of vicious and tragic circumstances, and he himself has unwittingly committed incest. The third book is about Lancelot and Guenever - their love for each other despite Lancelot's unattractiveness, Lancelot's attempts to prove himself in the quest for the Holy Grail, and the earliest warnings of the destruction of what Arthur has created. The fourth sees the climax of these various plot-lines, as Arthur's incestuous sin comes to haunt him and his court, and in the process threatens not just the end of his reign, but also the essence of what he and his knights had been striving for - a peaceful nation where justice was valued above force, where the spirit was fed as well as the body, and where Man recognised his place in the natural world, and treated it accordingly. The fifth book is a kind of anti-war dream sequence (though Merlyn would dispute that) in which Arthur is harangued by his old tutor about the gross failings of humanity, and given a chance to examine different political systems in the thin disguise of observing ants and geese.
The Witch in the Wood (also published as The Queen of Air and Darkness) is a significant shift in terms of tone away from the first book of the series. It begins by introducing the Orkney faction, as dysfunctional a family as you could imagine, who have deep personal reasons for hating Arthur. The Orkneys are not just enemies; they are Arthur's half-family, the ones on whom Arthur's father performed his own evil, and who are looking for revenge White paints them as men destroyed by a mother (Morgause) who was at times too loving, at times completely inattentive, and suggests that much of the emotional immaturity (and bloody viciousness of her sons is the result of this maternal over-influence.
Meanwhile, Arthur is trying to establish himself as a rightful king against the powerful barons, and also trying to establish something much more lastingly important - the Round Table.
For him (thanks to Merlyn's continued education) the idea that force should be the determining factor in ruling his kingdom is out-dated, wrong, perverse.
So he seeks to create a new world, where the fighting is done by those who are best at it for the best reasons. It is the beginning of the idea of chivalry, of justice, of respect for all life.
To offset these rather serious themes, White has Sir Grummore, King Pellinore and Sir Palomides continuing their endless comic hunting of the Questing Beast.
The III-Made Knight is Lancelot's name for himself. Convinced he is ugly, he dedicates himself to becoming the greatest knight in the world; but his achievements are all but destroyed by his overwhelming love for Guinevere - a love that struggles with his love for Arthur, for whom he had felt a powerful affection from his early youth, and his love for God. The focus of the story moves to Camelot, Arthur's court, with its knights and jousts and tournaments; and with his continuing search to find the right way to rule. The quest for the Holy Grail is an attempt to bring a spiritual aspect to the court that had until then found its success only through war and bloodshed. And throughout is the unspoken threat of what Arthur's adulterous (and incestuous) sin will bring to the court he has worked so hard to create.
The Candle in the Wind was to be the last book in the series, the one Where Arthur is forced to face the consequences of his actions through the evil manipulation of his illegitimate and incestuously-conceived son. Set during the last weeks of his reign, it details the plotting of Arthur's downfall by Mordred, who uses the affair between Lancelot and Guenever, and Arthur's conviction that justice must be even-handed, to bring his father to the point of killing his own wife.
It leads to the splintering of the Round Table and civil war, and closes on the eve of the last battle, with the war-weary old king telling the story of what he has done to a young Thomas Malory.
But White had more to say, and decided that The Book of Merlyn had to be added to explore his convictions that many of the world's problems could be resolved by removing national boundaries. His pacifism was a passionate one, and Merlyn becomes its mouthpiece.