Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Miscellaneous mental think mental think Six years pass and little changes. Merlyn continues to teach the Wart by turning him into every animal under the sun. Kay becomes more difficult; both he and the Wart grow taller. It will soon be time for Kay to be knighted and for the Wart to become his squire. The Wart is resigned to his fate, but he wishes he were a knight nonetheless. As the day of the knighting ceremony draws near, the Wart sulks more and more. Sir Ector sends him to Merlyn to be cheered up. Merlyn tells him that the best thing for sadness is to learn something. He turns the Wart into a badger and tells him that this is the last time he will be able to turn him into an animal. The Wart finds himself in front of the entrance to the badger's home, but he is in a foul mood and decides to be contrary. He walks away from the entrance and comes across a hedgehog. The Wart is in a desperate mood, and he threatens to eat the hedgehog, which has rolled itself into a tight, spiky ball. The hedgehog begs him not to eat him and the Wart relents, but the hedgehog does not trust him enough to uncurl. The Wart returns to the badger's home and talks to the badger, who tells him a story about how man got dominion over the animals: In the beginning, all animals looked like shapeless embryos. God offered to alter each of them in three ways. The animals choose things like claws for digging, large teeth for cutting, etc. Man was the last embryo to choose, and he chose to stay just as God had made him. God therefore gave him dominion over the animals and the ability to use any tool he wanted. When King Pellinore arrives for the weekend of Kay's knighting, he brings important news. King Uther Pendragon has died without an heir. A sword has appeared in an anvil and stone in front of a church in London; on the sword are inscribed the words, "Whoso Pulleth Out This Sword of this Stone and Anvil, is Rightwise King Born of All England." No one has yet been able to pull out the sword. A tournament has been proclaimed for New Year's Day so that men from all over England can come to try to pull out the sword. Kay convinces Sir Ector, Sir Grummore, and King Pellinore that they should go to the tournament. While they are talking, the Wart and Merlyn enter and Merlyn announces that he is leaving. He and Archimedes dematerialize before their eyes. The day of the tournament, Kay is so excited that he makes the group get up early and go to the jousting area an hour before the jousts begin. He realizes when he arrives that he has forgotten his sword at the hotel, so he sends the Wart to get it. The hotel is closed when the Wart gets there, but he sees a sword stuck in a stone in front of a nearby church. With some effort, he pulls the sword out of the stone and brings it back to Kay. Kay recognizes it as the sword that will determine the next king of England, and he tries to claim falsely that he was the one that pulled it out of the stone. When Sir Ector presses him, he gives in and admits that Wart pulled it out. The Wart is accepted as King after repeatedly putting the sword into the anvil and drawing it back out again. He receives gifts from all over England. One day Merlyn appears magically before him. He tells the Wart that his father was Uther Pendragon, that Merlyn was the one who first brought him to Sir Ector's castle as an infant, and that from now on he will be known as King Arthur. In Chapter 21, the Wart's transformation into a badger gives him a chance to work out some of his resentment towards Kay and also to learn a couple of lessons about the use of power. The first lesson is learned in his interaction with the hedgehog. One way of viewing the interaction is as a metaphor for the interaction of knights and members of the aristocracy with the 'common man' of the English Middle Ages. The Wart, as a badger, has overwhelming strength in comparison to the hedgehog, but he cannot eat the hedgehog without harming himself. The Wart learns the second lesson during his conversation with the badger. The badger ends his story about how humanity was given dominion over the animals by noting that humanity has not handled its responsibility well. The freedom to do anything--the kind of freedom that a King of England has--must be accompanied by a sense of the responsibility to do the right thing. The rest of this section is concerned with the practical matter of Kay's knighting, King Uther's death, and the journey to London where the Wart pulls the sword out of the stone and becomes the next King of England. Because of his 'backsight,' Merlyn knows that his time with the Wart is over; the next time he sees him he will be called King Arthur. From the moment that the Wart knows he will be King, we see the difference that Merlyn's education has made: the Wart is more shocked than pleased, and his first impulse is to prevent Sir Ector from kneeling in front of him. Bibliography: Word Count: 919
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