Summary
The novel begins with a depiction of an everyday scene at Castle Sauvage. A young boy nicknamed Wart plays with his friend Kay. Wart is the foster son of Sir Ector, ruler of the castle. Kay will eventually grow up to be a knight and Wart will become his squire, much to his frustration. Still, they remain close companions and spend a great deal of time together.
Ector discusses the possibility of replacing Kay and Wart's tutor with Sir Grummore Grummerson, a knight in his service. Together the boys go hunting with Kay's falcon, Cully. As a result of Kay's impatience and carelessness, the hawk is lost. Kay expresses his frustration with the hawk and Wart goes into the woods in search of it, with no assistance.
Wart narrowly avoids being hit by some arrows and comes to a clearing in the forest. There he encounters King Pellinore, a hunter who is searching the forest near the castle for a creature called the Questing Beast. He attempts to offer him a warm bed, but Pellinore vanishes when he believes he might have spotted the beast somewhere nearby, leaving Wart to sleep in the forest that night.
Following this, Wart comes upon a cottage in which an old man resides. This man informs him that his name is Merlyn and that he is a wizard. They share breakfast and Merlyn introduces him to his owl Archimedes and explains his unique outlook on time. He says that he sees time backward, whereas most people experience it forward. Merlyn agrees to be Wart's tutor and travels to the castle with him.
Kay returns to this castle with this exciting news. Merlyn speaks with Ector and they establish his credentials. Kay is briefly rude to Merlyn, to which the latter responds sharply and rebukes him. Kay is deeply embarrassed by the encounter and Merlyn, sensing that he is essentially kind, tries to make things right by giving him a hunting knife that he pulls from thin air.
In the chapter that follows, Wart goes on an adventure with Merlyn in the castle's moat. The narrator describes the castle at length and how the boys enjoy its many trappings and defenses, one of which is the moat. Bored with his lessons, Wart expresses a desire to become a fish, which Merlyn grants him, turning him into a perch while turning himself into a tench. He teaches him how to swim properly and they explore the water together. They come upon some easily frightened roaches and talk to them. Merlyn heals their ailing mother with magic.
Eventually, they meet a fearsome pike, known as the King of the Moat. Wart finds him to be incredibly imposing, with a long body and frightening teeth. The pike begins speaking to him, claiming that his dominance over the water derives from his stature and might. As he begins to repeat himself in a hypnotic manner, he nearly eats Wart, who has been listening to him with rapt attention. He narrowly escapes, swimming away rapidly before turning human again on the bridge of the castle.
Analysis
These early chapters establish many of the novel's key themes. The first chapter shows the way that Kay acts selfishly, as a result of his spoiled upbringing. He is easily angered when things do not go his way and views the people around him as entirely in his service, as he knows that he is from a higher class than they are. These qualities are shown to be unappealing and highlight the way in which his inherited title does not shape his character for the better. His characterization points to the way in which a social structure with the aristocracy at the top and everyone else in their service is not based on the strength of their character or wherewithal, but is almost entirely happenstance. Wart is the more proficient student and hunter, but Kay is still in line to be a knight by virtue of his birth.
Strength is another major theme in this section of the novel, as the pike talks at length about how his stature and might makes him the obvious ruler of the moat. His circular logic on the matter hinges on his assertion of power as the justification for his dominance. His words go on and on in a way that distracts Wart into nearly being eaten, suggesting that this logic has a kind of dangerous appeal. Similarly, the fact that the pike uses his comments to try and devour Wart also implies that this "might is right" thinking only begets more violence and danger.
Merlyn's magic also gives Wart the chance to consider ideas from another point of view, as his transformation into a fish gives him access to a whole other world. This is the beginning of his education about power and monarchy. In the moat he discovers that brutal rulers like the pike are feared, but hold up their claim to power with cruelty and violence, offering little to no other justification for their role. In this way, he begins to see that this sort of viewpoint is deeply harmful and should be countered with pacifism.
Likewise, these instances underscore the necessity of examining things from another point of view. Wart not only encounters the pike but also some small, frightened roaches. They tell Merlyn and Wart about their ailing mother and he makes her feel better with an incantation. In moments like this one, Merlyn shows Wart how to empathize with the plight of his constituents, however big or small their problems may appear. In contrast to the pike's myopic understanding of his place in the world and dominion over the moat, Wart is beginning to grasp how essential it is to take the perspectives and struggles of others into account. In this way, he is both learning a secret about the aquatic world he is visiting and learning something very common to human existence from the experience.
Merlyn's perception of time is also an important aspect of this section. He describes in detail how his position in time allows him to see things with a greater depth and nuance than other people, as he experiences it both backward and "inside out." In part, this is an explanation of his magical powers, and plays a greater role in the narrative at the story's end, but this is also a useful way to examine what Merlyn is trying to teach Wart. Where figures like Ector, Kay, and the pike are firmly fixed in their understanding of the world, Merlyn tries to show Wart that a thinking person, particularly one who will go on to be king, must look at things with a careful eye toward complexity. In appreciating the difficulties of others and seeing multiple threads of history, Merlyn tries to show Wart how to view situations with care and attention.
