45 - The dream of Europe: Camelot in the time of Mordred

Summary

T. H. White (2015) wrote The Once and Future King during the Second World War. It is a story of King Arthur and the knights of the round table in five volumes and with two endings. The first ending comes at the close of the fourth volume. Arthur prepares to go to battle with Mordred with the help of a page boy, named Thomas. In a moment of reflection, Arthur tells his page to leave the battlefield. Thomas’ mission is more important than combat. It is to carry the idea that nations should use their might for justice and not for conquest. He knights Thomas – Sir Thomas Mallory – and sends him away to ensure that the dream of Camelot remains alive. When the collection was first published in 1958, only four volumes were included and so this ending was definitive.

The revised collection, published in 1977, added that fifth volume back in and so included the second ending, in which Arthur agrees a truce with Mordred to divide up the kingdom between them. The decision is difficult for Arthur, but he accepts compromise as better than endless warfare. He meets with Mordred on the battlefield to finalize the new arrangement. Before the deal can be done, however, an accidental movement by one of the soldiers reignites the conflict. Both Arthur and Mordred are slaughtered in the ensuing violence.

White wrote his collection as an argument against war and in favor of peace. He also wrote it as a statement on the human condition. Camelot falters not because the idea of justice is unworthy or impractical, but because it is governed by people; even great people – people of legend – make mistakes of judgement and action. The lesson is that we should keep the ideal alive but also that we should prepare for misunderstanding. At its finest, European studies embraces this obligation, promoting an ideal of Europe as a civilizational power or normative superpower, but accepting that Europeans are human and so pushing back against their great potential for violence and misunderstanding.

The last century of European history follows a pattern very close to White's story of Camelot (Jones & Menon 2019).