While Wart is stuck in bed, Merlyn sends a spell through his bedroom keyhole to turn him into an ant. During the fray, the griffin breaks the Wart's collar bone. Kay manages to slay the beast, taking its head as a trophy. Their extended stay with Robin culminates in an encounter with a griffin. In one of their excursions, the boys and Merlyn encounter Little John, who leads them to Robin Hood (referred to as Robin Wood) and Marian. Merlyn turns him into a fish, and together they explore the castle's moat. Wart and Merlyn return to Ector's castle, and the wizard becomes the boys' tutor. Eventually, he meets the wizard Merlyn who is living backward in time, and frequently speaks of things that he has seen in the future. He is shot at by an unseen bowman, and he encounters King Pellinore who is busy hunting the Questing Beast. Chasing a tiercel goshawk that Kay had let get away during their falconry practice, Wart gets lost in the Forest Sauvage. Alongside Ector's son Kay, Wart is training as a knight, although he can only rise to be Kay's squire because he is of common birth. The Wart is an orphan boy being raised by Sir Ector in the Castle Sauvage surrounded by the Forest of the same name. Plot of the Once and Future King version However, it makes no attempt at consistent historical accuracy, and incorporates some obvious anachronisms. The setting is loosely based on Medieval England, and in places it incorporates White's considerable knowledge of medieval culture (e.g., hunting, falconry and jousting). Merlyn magically turns him into various animals at times, and he also has more human adventures. The premise is that Arthur's youth, not dealt with in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur (1485), was a time when he was tutored by Merlyn to prepare him for the use of power and royal life. In 2014, The Sword in the Stone was awarded a retrospective Hugo Award for Best Novel for 1939. Time included the novel in its list of the 100 Best Young-Adult Books of All Time.

Walt Disney Productions adapted the story to an animated film, and the BBC adapted it to radio.

A fantasy of the boyhood of King Arthur, it is a sui generis work which combines elements of legend, history, fantasy and comedy. First published by Collins in the United Kingdom as a stand-alone work, it later became the first part of a tetralogy, The Once and Future King. The Sword in the Stone is a 1938 novel by British writer T. Story of Arthur and The Sword in the Stone

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