I am really enjoying this book, more than I thought I would. The tone of the writing was a surprise to me, I did not expect it to contain humor or tongue-in-cheek social commentary. I take it T H White expected his readers to be young (teenagers at least).
I really enjoy the Latin bits, from the discussion of declensions between the Lords early in the book, to the scattering of Latin throughout the story, in songs and in Merlyn's magic spells. I think White expected his readers to be familiar with latin in an elementary way, and to have a rudimentary or better grasp of english history, particularly the timeframe of the Plantagenets, without which some of the allusions he makes might be missed.
Some info about the contents of Merlyn's room
The oddments described in Merlyn's room may be directly understood by readers from England, but I had to look them up, and thought I would share what I found regarding some of what is described there.When I first read "under a fox's mask, with Grafton, Buckingham to Daventry, 2 Hrs 20 Mins", I figured it was a train schedule or something similar, though I did not get the fox's mask reference. Turns out Grafton is a real hunt club where they once did, and maybe still do, hunt foxes, with running land from Buckingham to Daventry. Presumably then, the fox from which the fox mask was taken, took 2 Hours 20 Minutes to run down?
I was at a complete loss when I first read "a 40 pound salmon with AWE, 43 Min, Bulldog, written under it". In Scotland, there is a River Awe, where salmon fishing used to happen. The river was dammed in the mid-1950s, after T H White wrote Once and Future King, to the detriment but apparently not complete loss of salmon fishing on the River Awe. 40lbs is a big salmon, but far from a record holder. I now assume 43 minutes was how long it took "Merlyn" (or perhaps White) to land the fish, and Bulldog was the type of lure used to catch the fish.
Again, "basilisk, with Crowhurst Otter Hounds in Roman print" had no meaning at all for me, but there really were Crowhurst Otter Hounds that were used for hunting (otters, not basilisk).
An Ovis Poli is a Marco Polo sheep, noted for their large heads and curling horns. And, Peter Scott artwork is featured on a set of 25 large format cigarette cards from 1937, showing wildfowl. White wrote the component parts of Once and Future King between 1938 and 1941.
Merlyn's owl Archimedes is named for a "greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer", Archimedes of Syracuse.
I would like others to write something about their impressions of the book so far, ideally without any plot spoilers for those who may be running behind. For those willing to write something, please email it to me and I will post it as a blog post with an attribution.
Enjoy your reading!
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