A Questin’ We Will Go: The Beast Glatisant In T. H. White’s The Once and Future King, the Questing Beast is integral to the theme of chivalry; however, her role is limited. Though she is not central to the general plot of the work, Glatisant is central to Arthur’s ideals and the themes of chivalry as a marginal caricature. She represents the duality of the frivolity and necessity of questing, as well as the unhealthy adoration gained from these quests. By analyzing her limited role in the work and her relationship directly to knights like Pellinore, Grummore, and Palomides, and connecting her actions to Arthur’s ideals, this comical beast’s purpose as a caricature is revealed. The most explicit purpose of the Questing Beast is her representation of the frivolity of chivalric quests. In first describing his continual pursuit of Glatisant, Pellinore regards his perpetual harboring of “fewmets” as being “quite pointless” in fashion when tracking the beast, as it is the only of its kind (23). The using of fewmets as a way to track and decide if the beast is “warrantable” is a training “all the …show more content…
Glatisant, too, embodies the real possibility of the unhealthy adoration knights can gain through questing, something Arthur, in having his knights stand for justice rather than insisting on their own protection as well, neglects to address when establishing the Round Table. The Questing Beast, though limited in her role, poses a great impact on the difference between Arthur’s Round Table ideologies of knighthood, and what is not addressed by Arthur. When the Round Table is founded, Glatisant is eradicated from the tale, but her whimsical influences, however they are honed and skewed,