Castles (Symbol)
Castles are a recurring symbol in the book, representing the gulf between their wealthy inhabitants and the average people who live on the outside. Their heavily fortified walls and entryways represent the way in which the common folk are kept out of court life. At the same time, different castles are indicative of their regents. Morgan's castle is made of flashy marble, representing her taste for luxury and indulgence. Ector's castle is strongly barricaded, reflecting his prowess as a knight.
Hunting (Motif)
Hunting is a major motif in the book and appears in multiple forms. Many of the characters show an urge to hunt for sport and think little of spilling blood for no reason other than posturing. This motif appears in the form of the hawking and hunting that the characters take part in but is epitomized in the boar hunt section. In this chapter, a dog is grievously injured during a boar hunt. Robin Hood kills it to spare it further pain. Wart is upset about its death and feels angry that Twyti, the king's huntsman, wasted a life for the sake of bloodsport. In this moment, hunting is used to show the casualness with which aristocrats in the book engage in violence.
Sword (Symbol)
The titular sword in the stone is a symbol for Wart's embrace of his fate. Wart is the only one who is able to pull the sword free and it is inscribed with a message stating that only the future king of England can take it out. Wart being solely capable of this feat represents the fact that he was always going to take on the role of king. The sword's refusal of people like Ector and Kay reveals that Wart was destined to inherit the throne, regardless of his mysterious parentage and apparent lack of aristocratic title.
Owls (Symbol)
Owls function as a symbol of knowledge and wisdom in the narrative. In the chapter where Wart becomes an owl, with Archimedes' help, he learns that owls learn from the goddess Athene. He experiences her sweeping vision of natural processes like the erosion of mountains and the growth of trees. In doing so, he comes to appreciate the breadth of understanding that owls have of the world. He also discovers that they carry themselves very seriously and do not engage in activities like killing for pleasure. In this way, owls work to symbolize wisdom in the narrative.
The Questing Beast (Symbol)
King Pellinore is depicted as being obsessed with a creature known as the Questing Beast and continuously tries to figure out how to capture and vanquish it. However, when he finally discovers it, he finds that it is frightened and weak. Ultimately he ends up allying with it and it saves it from a cruel giant. The circuitous nature of his pursuit of this beast is symbolic of the absurdity of many knights' adventures. Initially fixated on the beast, to a comedic extent, his actual encounter with it completely changes his perspective about the creature. This reveals the way that these single-minded quests often don't yield their intended results and are based on faulty or baseless logic.
