Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Video

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, written by Mark Twain, recounts the adventures of an American man, Hank, who gets pulled back in time to King Arthur’s Camelot. This satire of feudalism and monarchy questions the progress made in the industrial revolution and has a democratic and anti-capitalistic point of view. One of Twain’s later novels, it is often cited as a foundational work in the science fiction genre for its use of time travel as a plot mechanism.

The author meets a man we’ll come to know as HANK MORGAN while touring Warwick Castle in England. Hank recounts a tale, “The Stranger’s History,” that comprises the bulk of the book. Hank explains that he was born and raised in Connecticut and worked at an arms factory. After being hit on the head during a brawl with a coworker, Hank wakes up in a strange field to a confrontation with a knight in full armor. The knight takes him prisoner and brings him to Camelot.

Upon arrival in the court at Camelot, Hank learns from a page, CLARENCE, that the year is 528. After much grandstanding from the knights of the round table and the magician MERLIN, Hank is thrown into prison, where he awaits execution. The day of Hank’s execution there’s a solar eclipse – which he knew would happen. Having claimed to be a magician, Hank raises a hand and pretends he’s using magic to blot out the sun. His trick is immediately effective. Hank negotiates with KING ARTHUR, promising to bring back the sun if Arthur will make him the King’s executive and give him 1% of the increase in annual revenue. King Arthur agrees to Hank’s terms and orders him to be released.

Merlin sows seeds of doubt about the credibility of this new magician. Hank, in turn, declares he’ll blow up Merlin’s tower to prove himself. With Clarence’s help and his own knowledge of arms from his work at the factory, Hank rigs the tower with blasting powder and a lightning rod. When a storm comes, lightning strikes and it explodes. Hank’s reputation is sealed, and Merlin’s is tainted. Hank refuses to accept a noble title but instead starts going by “The Boss.”

Hank spends years recreating 19th century amenities in Camelot – schools, telephone wires, even his own version of West Point Military Academy – until finally Arthur sends him off on an adventure. Hank begrudgingly takes to the road with a woman named SANDY who claims her mistress and forty-four other maidens are being held captive in a castle guarded by ogres. Hank gets a sense of medieval life by interacting with the people they pass.

Hank and Sandy come upon the castle of the famous magician Morgan Le Fay. Hank is surprised that she’s young and beautiful – but also cruel, stabbing a young page without a second thought. Impressed to learn Hank is “The Boss,” Le Fay invites him and Sandy to a grand dinner in the royal banquet hall, then offers Hank a tour of the castle.

They end up in the dungeons where a man is being tortured on the rack to extort a confession. Alone with Hank, the man explains he committed the crime – killing a hart on royal hunting grounds – but he cannot confess because if he does, his wife and child will be thrown out of their home, penniless. Hank releases the prisoner as well as forty-seven other captives being held for petty crimes.

Hank and Sandy set off again and eventually reach the object of their quest: the Ogre’s castle. Only the castle turns out to be a pigsty, and its 'maiden captives' a herd of swine. Sandy claims that the castle is enchanted. Hank, thinking the whole thing is ridiculous, plays along. He buys the pigs and gives them away to servants.

With his quest now completed, Hank goes to the Valley of Holiness, where he’s heard a miraculous fountain has been dry for nine days. When Hank arrives, Merlin is trying and failing to fix the fountain, which turns out to be a well. Hank uses theatrics and science to fix the well in a public display, besting Merlin once again. Wanting to see Hank’s miracle for himself, King Arthur comes to town. He and Hank discuss the military.

Arthur learns that Hank has been going out among commoners in disguise and demands to go with him. Arthur has a difficult time acting humble, and his dignified attitude puts them in danger. Hank is surprised by Arthur’s compassion when they reach a hut where a woman and her child are sick with smallpox. Arthur insists on staying with them until they die.

Hank and Arthur arrive at a charcoal burner’s hut after a chaotic night that involved running away from burning buildings, hanging bodies, and mob hunting fugitives. Hank observes that the men there remind him of the “poor whites” in his modern-day South. After spending some time with these people, Hank hosts an extravagant feast – partly to show off. Hank proclaims his democratic ideals in a discussion about farming and it takes a bad turn. Hank and Arthur run for their lives.

Captured and sold into bondage by a slave trader, Hank and King Arthur endure weeks of brutal treatment in a chain gang. They witness horrific injustices, including a woman burned as a witch and a mother hanged for stealing to feed her child. The ordeal humbles Arthur, who vows to abolish slavery, while Hank, moved by the suffering, delays their escape until the King learns the full weight of injustice.

In London, Hank and Arthur find themselves at the gallows. Hank had managed to escape and call Clarence but then was recaptured. In the meantime, Arthur and the rest of their enslaved group killed their master, earning them all a death sentence. Just as the group is about to be hanged, Hank's call for help pays off; Launcelot and 500 knights arrive on bicycles in a dramatic and theatrical rescue, saving them in the nick of time.

Back at Camelot, Hank finally has a long-awaited duel with a knight who challenged him years before. Hank wears comfortable clothing instead of armor and defeats all his opponents using a lasso and, eventually, guns. He then unveils his modernized society: schools, factories, a growing republic.

The next three years offer rapid industrialization. Hank marries Sandy and they have a child named Hello-Central. Hank goes away to France with Sandy and Hello-Central, and war breaks out. Hank returns to a dark deserted England, finding his empire has fallen, and King Arthur is dead.

Hank retreats to a fortified cave – referred to as “Merlin’s Cave” – with fewer than 52 loyal followers; there he prepares for war. In the Battle of the Sand Belt, he massacres tens of thousands of knights with mines and guns, eventually using an electric fence to take them all out. Hank gets injured after the battle by a felled knight seeking revenge. He and his loyal followers fall sick from the dead bodies surrounding their cave. A woman comes to take care of Hank and it turns out to be MERLIN who puts him under a spell and curses him to sleep for 1300 years.

Back in modern England, the author has just finished reading Hank Morgan’s manuscript. He walks into Hank’s room where Hank sleeps and dreams fitfully of Sandy, Hello-Central, and Clarence. Eventually, Hank dies, the author watching over him.