Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- What makes Merlyn's form of education so effective? Which episode makes the most significant impression on Wart and why? Which do you think is the weakest?
- Does Arthur share any responsibility at all for sleeping with Morgause? How is what follows unfair? Fair? Or is the situation completely beyond the dictates of fairness?
- Where do we see White sprinkling comedy into the novels? Which characters supply most of the comic relief? Why is it important in a work of this length and heavy subject matter to have a healthy dose of laughter added?
- Mordred professes at one point: "Blood is thicker than water." Where in the book do we see this statement complicated by various factors? Why, in the end, does everything come back to family?
- We don't find out until the first chapter of Candle that, when Mordred was a baby, Arthur set him adrift on a boat (presumably to kill him before the evidence of the incest between Arthur and Morgause was widely known). How does delaying this information help to characterize Arthur? Did you start to dislike him at this point? Why or why not?
- The only woman who gets to go on the Grail Quest ends up bleeding out to save some diseased lady's life. What do you think the Grail Quest would look like if a woman were allowed to totally participate?
- What other kinds of animals might Merlyn have turned Wart into, and what do you think would be the specific lessons he would be getting at?