When two boys save an old man from robbers, they learn of a competition in Londinium to decide the next king of Britain. The elder, Kay, is determined to prove himself worthy as a knight or a king. The younger is Arthur, a farm boy through and through - until he sees the sword in the stone.

After sixteen years, the secret is ready to be told. The true king of England is near! But first he must pull the sword from the stone.

This beautiful HarperCollins Children's Modern Classics edition is perfect for every bookshelf.

The newly crowned King Arthur has yet to win the support of the people. Merlin must do something before the king is betrayed, or murdered, or--worst of all--gets married. So Merlin creates a trick: a sword magically placed into a slab of rock that only Arthur can withdraw. Then he lets it be known that whosoever removes the blade will rule all of England, and invites any man who would dare, to try to pull out the sword. But then someone else pulls the sword out first. . . .

The definitive modern take on the timeless tale of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round table. The legends of King Arthur date back to medieval Europe, and have become some of the dominant myths of Western culture. In The Once & Future King, T. H. White reinvents the story for a modern audience. The novel starts by introducing the reader to a young Arthur – just a child, and far from the King he will become – as he is raised by the wizard Merlyn, and moves on to chronicle his rise to Kingship, the affair between Guinevere and Lancelot, and the eventual destruction of the round table. The first section, released independently as The Sword in the Stone, was adapted into an animated film by Walt Disney Pictures. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.

From the vast lore surrounding King Arthur, Camelot, and the Knights of the Round Table, comes an anthology of gender-bent, race-bent, LGBTQIA+ inclusive retellings. Featuring stories by: Alexander Chee • Preeti Chhibber • Roshani Chokshi • Sive Doyle • Maria Dahvana Headley • Ausma Zehanat Khan • Daniel M. Lavery • Ken Liu • Sarah MacLean • Silvia Moreno-Garcia • Jessica Plummer • Anthony Rapp • Waubgeshig Rice • Alex Segura • Nisi Shawl • S. Zainab Williams Here you’ll find the Lady of the Lake reimagined as an albino Ugandan sorceress and the Lady of Shalott as a wealthy, isolated woman in futuristic Mexico City; you'll see Excalibur rediscovered as a baseball bat that grants a washed-up minor leaguer a fresh shot at glory and as a lost ceremonial drum that returns to a young First Nations boy the power and the dignity of his people. There are stories set in Gilded Age Chicago, '80s New York, twenty-first century Singapore, and space; there are lesbian lady knights, Arthur and Merlin reborn in the modern era for a second chance at saving the world and falling in love—even a coffee shop AU. Brave, bold, and groundbreaking, the stories in Sword Stone Table will bring fresh life to beloved myths and give long-time fans a chance to finally see themselves in their favorite legends.

In Southern Britain, the Giants Dance stands alone on the Great Plain. For 500 years its massive trilithons have remained unruled by any chief. With invaders from distant lands attacking Britain's shores to steal its precious tin, another king must be chosen-this is the Quest of the Merlin, high priest and shaman. He brings together U'thyr Pendraec, the Terrible Head, and the beautiful Y'gerna, wife of another man, and from them a child is born...a boy who can move a sacred stone and take the ancient dagger beneath...a boy who will become High King. With totems of power and an ancestral sword from the depths of the sacred lake, Ardhu Pendraec assumes the mantle of the Stone Lord, ruler of the Great Trilithon, protector of ancient Britain.... It is a time of gold-clad kings, a time of ritual and death, a time of Axe and Dagger. The beautiful Irish Princess, Fynavir, the White Phantom, is Ardhu's chosen Bride. The Breton Prince An'kelet, bearer of the Great Spear, is his right-hand man. Yet, Ardhu's 'Golden Age' is fleeting, with betrayal and deception rife by those closest to him - Morigau, his scheming half-sister, who releases the Boar T'orc to ravage the land...and Fynavir and An'kelet, whose forbidden passion may bring down all the young King has worked to attain. ***** Stone Lord is a book set in Britain's prehistory such as you've never read before.... Mixing fiction with the latest discoveries, intertwining myth with real archaeology, this is a novel of the prehistoric origins of the man we call KING ARTHUR ...