The Ill-Made Knight is the third book in the epic novel The Once and Future King, by T. H. White. It was first published in 1940, but is usually found today only in collected editions of all four books of the novel.
Plot
Much of The Ill-Made Knight takes place in the fabled Camelot, full of blue castle tops, red banners and white castle bricks. Against this happy backdrop, White constructs a tragedy.
The Ill-Made Knight is based around the adventures, perils and mistakes of Sir Lancelot. Lancelot, despite being the bravest of the knights, is ugly, and ape-like, so that he calls himself the "Ill-Made Knight". T.H. White's version of the tale elaborates greatly on the passionate love of Lancelot and Guinevere. Suspense is provided by the tension between Lancelot's friendship to King Arthur and his love for his best friend's wife. It is hard to explain Lancelot’s love for Guinevere, for it seems unimaginable; he would sit upon his horse for days upon days, and many restless nights, dreaming about the queen and always lusting for her while he is away on his noble deeds.
The Ill-Made Knight also deals with the quest for the Holy Grail, but this is a side event to the main thrust of the story, and distracts many readers from the main plot of Lancelot and Guinevere. About one quarter of the book is centered in the Holy Grail, another quarter in Lancelot’s other adventures and lessons and finally about a good half on the love between Lancelot and Guinevere. The affair leads inevitably to the breaking of the round table and sets up the tragedy that is to follow in the conclusion, The Candle in the Wind .
Sources and popular culture.
T.H. White mostly bases his text on that of his predecessor Thomas Malory in his retelling of Arthurian legend. Many details, however, are unique to White, such as Lancelot's ugliness. Various legends had cited various persons as the finders of the Holy Grail. White allows all three of the most commonly-cited discoveres to find the grail, Galahad, for his purity, Parceval , for his innocence, and Bors, for his doctrine.
The Lerner and Lowe musical Camelot is largely based on The Ill Made Knight and The Candle in the Wind.
Quotes
- “The boy [Lancelot] thought that there was something wrong with him. All throughout his life—even when he was a great man with the world at his feet—he was to feel this gap: something at the bottom of his heart of which he was aware, and ashamed, but which he did not understand it... We do not have to dabble in a place which he preferred to keep secret."
Source
White, T.H. The Once and Future King, 1958.
