Vance makes no pretence of historical accuracy. The society depicted is in general of the later Middle Ages, with trading cogs plying the seas, knights engaged in jousting and following the fully developed Code of Chivalry, and royal courts dancing the pavane and cotillon – all of which would be gross anachronisms when assumed to take place in the 5th century. In this Vance, in fact, followed the conventions of the original Arthurian tales, which depicted the society of their own time rather than that of the historical King Arthur.