Arthur is king of the realm, but it seems once again that the King shall be made out to be a young fool. Within the Malory text we saw very little emotion for King Arthur. He was sorely dependent on his advisers and stood as more of a figurehead for the kingdom than an actual competent ruler. Merlyn makes a point to say that those advancing on Arthur do it not solely for the purpose of usurping the crown, but because they believe him to be a weak ruler. "Pulling swords out of the stones is not a legal proof of paternity, i admit, but the kings of the Old Ones are not fighting you about that. They have rebelled, although you are their feudal sovereign, simply because the throne is insecure." (White 219) However credit should be given more to Arthur in the White novel because he seems very young and incompetent in the way that young people often are. You can get a feeling that as the story progresses we may see some improvements and maturity within his character. At this point in the story i would say he’s no more than a mere teen boy (if that), who is just beginning his rule of the land. The claim I making however, could be easily disputed because Arthur's age has not been referenced. For all we know he could be well on his way to being a grown man whom simply cannot run his kingdom without a helping hand. If this were true Arthur becomes even more pathetic than he was in Malory's text.
Merlyn in the White novel seems to have a prominent role as a mentor to the great King. Never before in a novel was Merlyn more than an advisor in the background. White has brought him to the forefront and given him a personality and purpose unlike that in any other readings thus far. Not only is merlin important to the King in this book, but he is also mentioned by the young Gawaine Gareth and company. "There along came the wicked magician Merlyn "a nigromancer" said Gareth"(White 210). I choose this particular passage because we have never heard of Merlyn described as evil or done so with such venom, but here we see both and it is done by mere children. The scene we come into gives us the relative age of our knight’s young Gawaine, Agravaine, Gaheris, and Gareth range from 10-14 years old, which could also make a case for King Arthur's age being right around the same ballpark. Sir Gawaine and his brothers are later to be a key part of the Knights of the Round Table under Arthur's command. As we look back on Malory or Tennyson it doesn’t seem that king Arthur is aged that far ahead of his knights, and if he is it can only be a couple years difference so at most King Arthur could only be a teen in the beginning of T.H. White's story.
I focus so much on Arthurs’s age so that as a reader I may analyze his behavior and predict where the story might lead. At this point I believe T.H. White will focus a good portion of his novel on Arthur and his life verses Lancelot and Guinevere(and their point of views) and their destruction of the kingdom. Of course we will get a taste of that but for the first time i think we will get it from the Kings perspective.
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