Summary:
In part two, The Queen of Air and Darkness, White sets the stage for Arthur's demise by introducing the Orkney clan and detailing Arthur's seduction by their mother, his half-sister Morgause. While the young king suppresses initial rebellions, Merlin leads him to envision a means of harnessing potentially destructive Might for the cause of Right: the Round Table.
The third part, The Ill-Made Knight, shifts focus from King Arthur to the story of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guenever's forbidden love, the means they go through to hide their affair from the King(although he already knows of it from Merlin), and its effect on Elaine, Lancelot's sometime lover and the mother of his son Galahad.
The Candle in the Wind unites these narrative threads by telling how Mordred's hatred of his father and Agravaine's hatred of Sir Lancelot caused the eventual downfall of King Arthur, Queen Guenever, Sir Lancelot, and the entire ideal kingdom of Camelot.
As you can see from the summary, these stories while entertaining, are not as light-hearted as The Sword in the Stone. I am still enjoying reading them, but the themes and reflections are more adult than I would expect from a children's story. I recommend them to anyone who is curious to understand the King Arthur story better, but not to readers under ages 10 or 12.
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