Excalibur: A Novel of Arthur Camlan where Merlin has arranged for a ship to take them away to safety. At the last minute, they are joined by Sagramor and the last of his warriors. Mordred comes for Arthur, determined to end the greatest threat to his rule by killing both him and Gwydre. In the brutal battle that follows, Arthur kills Mordred but is wounded during the fight. As the battle seems to turn in favour of Mordred's remaining warriors, an unexpected combatant arrives: Meurig's warriors have come to take Dumnonia's throne for the King of Gwent. To save Arthur and Gwydre from the latest
King Arthur democracy. In John Cowper Powys's "" (1951), set in Wales in 499, just prior to the Saxon invasion, Arthur, the Emperor of Britain, is only a minor character, whereas Myrddin (Merlin) and Nineue, Tennyson's Vivien, are major figures. Myrddin's disappearance at the end of the novel is "in the tradition of magical hibernation when the king or mage leaves his people for some island or cave to return either at a more propitious or more dangerous time" (see King Arthur's messianic return). Also Powys's earlier novel, "A Glastonbury Romance" (1932) is concerned with both the Holy Grail and the legend