Near the end of this, the last volume of The Once and Future King, White offers his readers a short "obituary" of Arthur, the mythical figure whom he has examined through the course of four novels: "He was only a man who had meant well . . . But it had ended in failure."
Since his boyhood, Arthur has moved from being the Wart, a naive but earnest boy, to being King Arthur, a man whose destiny and ideals were to become forever associated with England, the Round Table, and the age of chivalry. White humanizes Arthur as "only a man who had meant well," but a reader of The Candle in the Wind knows that White is being modest for his protagonist's sake. For as The Candle in the Wind makes clear, Arthur was a man whose ideas about might, right, and law stood far ahead of those believed by all his opponents — and even some of his allies. True, Arthur's attempt to institute a "total justice" in his kingdom proves "too difficult" and he is defeated by Mordred's might, but his attempt ennobles him and his example, forever recorded by the young page, Tom Malory, will inspire generations. What is myth for if not to serve as a guide to behavior and a framework through which one can view very modern issues? As The Iliad invites its readers to think about the effects of war and Paradise Lost examines the cosmic battle between good and evil, The Candle in the Wind is ultimately the record of one man's rise against wanton and terrible force — and how, despite his own destruction at the hands of it, he triumphs morally, if not militarily.
