A Comparison of Medieval and Anglo Saxon Characteristics
             A study of Lerner and Loewe's Camelot, based on T.H. White's Once and Future King, and The Road to Camlann by Rosemary Sutcliff, will illustrate many aspects of Medieval culture. Three Medieval cultural traits which appear in both works are belief in magic fantasy, humility, and the importance of women. Comparing and contrasting the historical novel and the film to Anglo Saxon poetry will reveal that the belief in magic and fantasy was a modification of Anglo Saxon characteristics, and humility and the importance of women were cultural characteristics which were completely new to the Medieval period.
             The belief in magic and fantasy is a characteristic displayed in the film mostly by a man named Merlin. Merlin is the teacher of Arthur, King of England. In Camelot, the first time Merlin appears he seems to emerge from a tree in a forest. This gives the idea that Merlin is part of the tree and the forest. Arthur tells Guenever, to whom he is betrothed that Merlin is said to be someone, whom: "lives backwards. He can remember the future so he can tell you what you will be doing in it. He doesn't age, he youthens" (Lerner). Mordred, the illigitement son of King Arthur, also shows the extreme belief in magic and fantasy when he says, "Mother had a potion to take off ten years. They gave it to me when I was 9 to make me –1"(Lerner). The belief in magic and fantasy was something that everyone truly did believe in, not something that people just talked about.
             The novel also shows that the belief in magic and fantasy is a part of the lives of everyone in Camlann. Merlin plays the same role in the novel as he does in the film. He is Arthur's teacher, and mentor who can see into the future to warn Arthur of things that will happen in his life. However, Morgan La Fay, the half sister of Arthur, really shows...