the Witch in the Wood

This book is the second of T.H. White's The Once and Future King series. Arthur and Merlyn are barely in this one - instead, we largely follow two ongoing largely comic threads: in one, the errant King Pellinore continues to search for the Questing Beast; in the other, Arthur's nephews (Agravaine, Gawaine, Gaheris and Gareth) jostle for status as they await adulthood. Meanwhile, in the background, the King is working on plans to establish some means of promoting chivalry and righteousness throughout the land, by way of an egalitarian ideal embodied in the Round Table. to which he starts calling chivalrous and righteous knights to promote his ethic. The eponymous "witch in the wood" is Morgan le Fay, who shows up briefly - also, right at the end, Arthur's half-sister Morgause seduces him by way of nefarious magics to conceive with him an incest-baby who will grow up to the be prophetically-ominous/tragic Mordred.