The White Knight is a fictional character in Lewis Carroll's 1871 book '' Through the Looking-Glass''. He represents the

chess piece A chess piece, or chessman, is a game piece that is placed on a chessboard to play the game of chess. It can be either White and Black in chess, white or black, and it can be one of six types: King (chess), king, Queen (chess), queen, Rook (chess ...

of the same name. As imagined in John Tenniel's illustrations for the ''Alice'' stories, he is inspired by

Albrecht Dürer Albrecht Dürer (; ; hu, Ajtósi Adalbert; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer (without an umlaut) or Due ...

's 1513 engraving " Knight, Death and the Devil."

Storyline

The White Knight saves Alice from his opponent (the Red Knight). He repeatedly falls off his horse and lands on his head, and tells Alice of his inventions, which consists of things such as a pudding with ingredients like blotting paper, an upside down container, and anklets to guard his horse against shark bites. He recites a poem of his own composition, 'A-Sitting on a Gate', (but the song's ''name'' is called ' Haddocks' Eyes') and he and Alice depart.

Film incarnations

* ''Alice in Wonderland'' (1933) Played by Gary Cooper * The White Knight was planned to appear in Disney's 1951 movie, but the idea got scrapped. Alice had to meet him at the Tulgey Wood, where the White Knight (supposed to be a caricature of Walt Disney himself) tried to lift her spirit up after the girl gets lost. Few concept art pictures of the White Knight survive. * ''Alice in Wonderland'' (1955) (TV) Played by Reginald Gardiner * '' Alice in Wonderland (or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?)'' (1966) (TV) Played by Bill Dana * ''Alice Through the Looking Glass'' (1974) (TV) Played by Geoffrey Bayldon * ''Alisa v Zazerkalie'' ("Alice through the Looking-Glass") (1982) (Soviet cartoon) Voiced by Nikolai Karachentsov * ''Alice in Wonderland'' 1982 (TV) Played by

Stephen Boe Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; h ...

* ''Great Performances'': "Alice in Wonderland" (1983) TV episode, Played by Richard Burton * ''Alice in Wonderland'' (1985) (TV) Played by Lloyd Bridges * ''Alice Through the Looking Glass'' (1987) (TV) Played by Alan Young * '' Chess Wars'' (1996) Played by

Kirk B.R. Woller Kirk B. R. Woller is an American actor who has played Gaius in The Chosen, Agent Gene Crane on The X-Files, and the boss of the mysterious cleaners in Charmed. His notable film characters include coach Cal Sawyer in Hometown Legend, Chief Officer ...

* ''Alice Through the Looking Glass'' (1998) (TV) Played by Ian Holm * ''Alice Underground'' (1999) Played by Chris Danuser * ''Alice in Wonderland'' (1999) (TV) Played by Christopher Lloyd * ''The Slick White Rabbit'' (2005) Played by Steve Furedy * ''Alice'' (2009) (TV) Played by Matt Frewer * In the

2010 movie In the year 2010, there was a dramatic increase and prominence in the use of 3D-technology in filmmaking after the success of ''Avatar'' in the format, with releases such as '' Alice in Wonderland'', '' Clash of the Titans'', '' Jackass 3D'', all ...

, the White Knight is one of the White Queen's soldiers. He looks almost exactly like the real chess piece where he has the head of a horse.

References

* * Lewis Carroll characters Fictional knights Literary characters introduced in 1871 {{child-lit-char-stub