Sutcliff's novel is Arthur written deliberately underneath Malory: a Romano-British cavalry commander called Artos holding the line after the legions have gone, with no Round Table, no Grail and no Lancelot. The Malory material is kept where it can be given a historical cause. The sword, the sister, the incestuous begetting of Medraut, the betrayal and the last battle are all there; the enchantments are not. Guenhumara's affair is with Bedwyr, because Lancelot is a twelfth-century French addition and Sutcliff is writing before it. That is a debt rather than a rejection: the book only works if the reader knows the legend it is stripping, and Sutcliff said she was after the man the stories had grown around.