Characters

King Arthur

Hank's general impression of King Arthur is that he is too sure of himself and too unaware of the realities of his country. From this assessment, Hank feels that King Arthur is therefore destined to rule poorly. While traveling on his quest to free the damsels, Hank becomes outraged at the inequities of the English economic system and disgusted at the way that peasants are refused any say in their fate. When King Arthur offers to go traveling with Hank (with the king and Hank traveling in disguise), Hank sees his opportunity to show the king what life is like for the large segment of the population. Hank finds King Arthur's regal bearing pitiful because he knows that the king understands only one set of behaviors. Hank also finds the king's actions annoying because he (King Arthur) expresses his own thoughts when he should be listening. Ultimately, King Arthur's behavior proves dangerous because his proclamations while dressed in common clothes are taken to be signs that he is insane, which makes it easy for Dowley to arrange to have Arthur and Hank sold into slavery.

While traveling together, however, Hank sees the admirable side of King Arthur. Entering a house infected with smallpox, King Arthur does not hesitate or think of his own health when bringing an infected child to his mother, who is too weak to stand. King Arthur's belief in the rights of royalty extends to his power over illness, which Hank finds ridiculous when peasants line up to have the king's hands laid on them. But, Hank is impressed that King Arthur thinks nothing of facing death to bring mother and child together.

While Hank thinks King Arthur is a fool for believing that he has powers beyond those of ordinary men, the rest of the population admires him, except in one thing: everyone in the kingdom except King Arthur knows of the affair between King Arthur's wife, Guenever, and Sir Launcelot. For that, the king is silently laughed at by his subjects.

The Boss

See Hank Morgan

Clarence

Clarence is a nickname that Hank gives to a young page that talks to him when he first arrives in the sixth century. At first, Clarence seems as slow-witted as all of the peasants around Camelot, but Hank sees potential in him. Clarence turns out to be a useful surrogate for Hank as the he travels around the country. Hank sends people in need to Clarence, and he telephones Clarence to give him instructions. Hank teaches Clarence how to be a good newspaper reporter, which he says is necessary in molding a civilized country. During the final war, when Hank returns to England, Clarence tells him all that he has missed while traveling with his wife and child, and Clarence writes the final chapter of the ancient manuscript, describing how Hank was injured and then put under a spell by Merlin, which enabled him to live until his own time.

Sir Dinadan

Sir Dinadan is the Round Table's humorist. Sir Dinadan is more amused by his jokes than anyone else in the court. Sir Dinadan writes the very first book, which is a collection of jokes. Sir Dinadan includes a joke about a lecturer that Hank hates, and so Hank has Sir Dinadan hanged.

Dowley

Dowley is the blacksmith in a small village the king and Hank stop in while traveling. Dowley has a big mouth and is unintelligent. He cannot understand that the wages in his town buy less than the wages where his guests come from, and so his wages are valued less overall. Hank humiliates Dowley with a stunning argument, and as a result, Dowley has the two strangers arrested and put into slavery.

Puss Flanagan

Puss is Hank Morgan's girlfriend back in his own time. She lives in East Hartford, Connecticut, and is only mentioned once in the novel when Hank is considering how improper it would be for him to go traveling unchaperoned with Demoiselle Alisande la Carteloise.

Guenever

Guenever is the wife of King Arthur and the lover of Sir Launcelot. In most sources, her name is given as "Guinevere," but Twain gives it as "Guenever."

Hercules

Hercules is a strong man who works at the blacksmith shop with Hank in the nineteenth century. Hank explains that, during a fight, Hercules hit him on the head with a crowbar, which is what causes him to go back to the sixth century.

Hugo

Hugo is the man Hank finds imprisoned in Morgan Le Fey's castle. Hugo is charged with killing a deer. Hugo is tortured, but he will not confess to the crime. Hugo eventually tells Hank that he did kill the deer but does not dare confess because his wife will lose all that she owns. Hank has Hugo and his wife sent to join his Man Factory.

Sir Kay

Sir Kay is the knight who takes Hank into captivity soon after he arrives in the sixth century and brings him to Camelot, telling the knights there is a fantastic story about how he conquered Hank. Sir Kay refers to Hank with exaggerations like "giant," even though his listeners are standing right in front of him and can see that Hank is an ordinary man.

Demoiselle Alisande La Carteloise

See Sandy

Sir Launcelot

In the legend that Hank reads in the book's introduction, Sir Launcelot presents prisoners to the ladies of the court on behalf of Sir Kay. Later, Sir Launcelot leads the army of five hundred knights who storm London by bicycle to save Hank and the king from being hanged. As in the traditional stories, Sir Launcelot is in love with King Arthur's wife, Guenever, and she is in love with him.

The book explains that it is Sir Launcelot's affair with Guenever that destroys the kingdom. Sir Launcelot makes a shrewd investment that financially ruins King Arthur's nephew, Mordred, who, in retaliation, tells King Arthur about the affair. The war that ensues between Sir Launcelot's knights and King Arthur's knights decimates the social order, making it easy for the church to come in and take control.

Morgan Le Fey

Morgan Le Fey is King Arthur's sister and a familiar villain from the Arthurian legends. Hank Morgan stops at her castle while he is on his quest with Demoiselle Alisande la Carteloise. Le Fey is a cruel dictator, but she gives in to Hank when she realizes that he is the sorcerer that everyone has heard about. She grudgingly allows him to free prisoners in her dungeon and to show mercy to the mother of a page whom she (Le Fey) killed.

Amyas Le Poulet

See Clarence

Marco

Marco is a charcoal manufacturer. When the king and Hank are traveling incognito as a farmer and his bailiff, Marco and his wife, Phyllis, have them over for dinner. Marco worries when Hank invites a number of other tradesmen, thinking that he cannot afford such a party, but Hank pays for a sumptuous meal and furnishings to accommodate all.

Merlin

Unlike the way Merlin the magician is presented in legends, the Merlin here is a braggart and a fool. His reputation is based on the way that he takes tales of ordinary events and adds details that make it look as if his supernatural powers were involved. When, in the third chapter, Merlin tells the story of how Arthur came to be king (with Merlin's help), Hank Morgan is charmed, but everyone in court, who has heard the story numerous times before, falls asleep. Merlin soon gets on Hank's bad side by insisting that he (Hank) be executed. When Hank has a chance to impress people with his own brand of sorcery, he does it by first bettering Merlin and then destroying his tower. Later, when Hank is facing one knight after another in a duel and besting them with his lasso, Merlin steals it from him and then tells King Arthur a lie about the lasso being good for only a set number of uses before it would vanish back to where it came from.

At the end of the book, Merlin proves to be a true magician and a wise politician. When Hank and Clarence and their supporters are fighting to establish a republic, Merlin is present, disguised as an old woman. When Hank is injured, Merlin puts a spell on him so that he will sleep for thirteen centuries, waking up in the time that he came from, thereby sparing him defeat in the war. Merlin dies laughing.

Hank Morgan

Most of the novel is presented as Hank's journal about his time in the sixth century, which he presents to Twain in the nineteenth century. In it, he tells of how he was transported by a blow to the head back to the court of King Arthur and the changes that he (Hank) made to their backward time. Hank brings them technological advances, such as railroads, telephones, telegraphs, sewing machines, and firearms. Hank promotes political reform, convincing King Arthur to abolish slavery and equalize the tax system so that it does not unfairly burden the poor.

Hank's one personal flaw is that he does not suffer fools well. When dining with Marco and the other tradesmen, for instance, Hank explains that he should not argue with Dowley to the point of humiliating the man, but he cannot help himself. The end result is that Hank and the king are perceived as a threat and sold into slavery. Hank makes a big show of pointing out the fraudulence of Merlin and the rival magician from the East who claims to know things that others are doing far away. Given that most of his attempts to bring nineteenth-century technology to the sixth century are kept in private, it is counter-productive for Hank to take such pride in unmasking the phoniness of the established world. While traveling with King Arthur, Hank actively struggles to suppress his opinion that the king is no better than any other man, knowing that no good can come of insulting the king.

After the kingdom has been torn apart by internal war and then taken over by the Catholic church's interdiction, Hank is the leader of a band of young men who try to keep the country free. When the battle is lost, Merlin, whose power Hank has previously unmasked as fraudulent, places a spell on him so that he will sleep for thirteen hundred years. This explains why, having been transported to the past at the beginning of the narrative, he is able to interact with Mark Twain in the nineteenth century.

Sir Sagramor

Early in the novel, Hank Morgan offends Sir Sagramor when he comments unfavorably about the stale jokes of Sir Dinadan. Sir Sagramor thinks Hank is talking about him. A duel is arranged, but Sir Sagramor has to leave almost immediately on the quest for the Holy Grail, so the duel is postponed. Years later, after Hank returns from slavery, the duel is called on again. Sir Sagramor, dressed in heavy armor, is unable to maneuver himself. Hank beats Sir Sagramor by throwing a cowboy lasso over him and pulling him to the ground.

Sandy

Sandy is the nickname Hank gives Demoiselle Alisande la Carteloise. She comes to the court in chapter XI with a story about a castle where maidens are being held prisoner by four-armed, one-eyed giants. When Hank is sent out to free the maidens, Sandy travels the countryside with him, boring him with long-winded discussions about her backward views. At the end of the quest, the maidens turn out to be a herd of pigs and the castle they are held in is a sty, which Sandy says just looks that way to Hank because of a magical spell. Their travels end with Hank leaving Sandy at a convent to rest.

Much later, Sandy is reintroduced into the book as Hank's wife. They have a very loving relationship and have a daughter together. When Hank has to leave Sandy and the child, he writes to her every day. Hank's final words on his death bed, hundreds of years later, are to her.