The publisher declined due to wartime paper shortages and White's antiwar message. In November 1941 White sent the revisions along with The Candle in the Wind (part 4) and The Book of Merlyn (part 5) to his publisher with the intent that all five parts be published together as a single book. White had revised The Sword in the Stone (1938), The Queen of Air and Darkness (1939), plus The Ill-Made Knight (1940) to weave in the anti-war theme. Rather than containing a distinct plot, this book reads more like a discourse on war and human nature.

White was inspired to write this book upon determining that the key theme of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur is to find an 'antidote for war'. His last miracle was making the room that he died in smell like heaven. Lancelot becomes a hermit and dies a hermit. Guenever joins a convent, and remains there till death. Arthur's troops attack Mordred's, and both Arthur and Mordred die in the battle that follows. The opposing side, unaware of the snake, takes this as an act of betrayal. During the making of this deal, a snake comes upon one of Mordred's soldiers. He makes a deal with Mordred to split England in half. Arthur does not want to fight after everything that he has learned from Merlyn. The last chapter of the book takes place only hours before the final battle between King Arthur and his son and nephew Mordred. As he did in The Sword in the Stone, Merlyn again demonstrates ethics and politics to Arthur by transforming him into various animals. Merlyn reappears to complete Arthur's education and discover the cause of wars. The book opens as King Arthur prepares himself for his final battle. It is the conclusion of The Once and Future King, but it was published separately and posthumously. The Book of Merlyn is an Arthurian fantasy book by British writer T.

The once and future king by th white