The novel's epigraph serves as an invitation to the reader from T. H. White ("you and I") to enter a world of magic. "Gramarye" is an archaic word meaning "magic," and "Merlyn's Isle of Gramarye" refers not to the England of history, but of legend. Although the novel's style is often humorous and anachronistic, the characters are part of an old narrative and mythological tradition. The epigraph suggests to the reader that the novel's setting "is not any common earth" (one bound by the laws of physics as found in "realistic" fiction), but instead a place where uncommon occurrences and random moments of magic are the norm. Thus, the world of The Sword in the Stone is one where characters react in believable and understandable ways to unbelievable and fantastic events. For example, when the Wart is transformed into different animals, he feels all the emotions a reader would expect a person to feel upon becoming a fish, hawk, or badger — but the very impossibility of such transformations occurring is never questioned by any of the characters. Magic is as much of an accepted part of the characters' lives as gravity is of our own.
The novel begins with a description of the Wart and Kay's schedule of lessons, the sound of which reinforces its dryness and sterility: "On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays it was Court Hand and Summulae Logicales, while the rest of the week it was the Organon, Repetition, and Astrology." White begins the novel with this sentence to hint at the book's most important theme: the qualities of a good education and the means by which it is acquired. Throughout the novel, the Wart will learn lessons about humanity, although not from books, astrolabes, or the "Summulae Logicales." Destined to rule all of England, the Wart must learn about people, politics, and power before the title of "Once and Future King" can be conferred upon him. Because the reader knows that the Wart will eventually become King Arthur, White offers an array of characters and situations that allow the reader to see the different ways the boy acquires the qualities he needs to act as a loyal and responsible king. In short, much of White's novel is concerned with leadership and how a naive boy who knows little of the practical, political world becomes more knowledgeable about it, all without his even realizing that such an education is taking place.
