Pacifist Literature During WWII: T. H. White’s the Once and Future King

Abstract T.H. White, an acclaimed author and one of the representatives of Fantasy and the Matter of Britain in the twentieth century, explores the topic of war in Arthurian society in the novel The Once and Future King (1958). In this article, I will demonstrate the central conundrum of this political allegory as the opposition of “Might versus Right” and Arthur’s endeavours toward solutions against violence and warfare. T. H. White and (by extension) Arthur are trying to find an “antidote to war” by exploring types of governing to pinpoint which one is the most pacifist, inspired by the horrors of the Second World War.