Excalibur: A Novel of Arthur is the third and final book in The Warlord Chronicles

The Warlord Chronicles

The Warlord Chronicles is a trilogy of books about Arthurian Britain written by Bernard Cornwell...

 series by Bernard Cornwell

Bernard Cornwell

Bernard Cornwell OBE is an English author of historical novels. He is best known for his novels about Napoleonic Wars rifleman Richard Sharpe which were adapted into a series of Sharpe television films.-Biography:...

. The trilogy tells the legend of Arthur

King Arthur

King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...

 seen through the eyes of his follower Derfel Cadarn

Derfel Cadarn

Derfel Cadarn is a fictional character and the main protagonist in The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell. He is a straightforward and gifted warrior who is loyal and trustworthy...

.

Plot summary

"The third novel in the Warlord Trilogy Excalibur: A Novel of Arthur immerses the reader in the Britain of the Dark Ages. Merlin, the greatest of the Druids, believes that the ancient gods are deserting Britain, and that the invading Saxons can't be defeated without the help of the gods. Mordred reigns with a brutal hand, and Arthur sees his dreams of peace between the British Kingdoms evaporate. The author provides engrossing descriptions of battle tactics, interspersed with somewhat gruesome depictions of ordinary life in those days—greasy, waist-length beards serving as napkins, lambs bloodily sacrificed before festivals, and rampant lice.
But at the heart of Excalibur--what makes the Arthurian legends eternally fascinating—is the larger-than-life company of heroes, from Sagramor the warrior to Taliesin the bard, Guinevere, Lancelot, and Arturus Rex himself. Cornwell treats them all with warmth and dignity, revealing their human qualities without unnecessarily reinventing them. This three-part saga of magic and bloodshed will grip readers from the first page of The Winter King, through Enemy of God, to the last page of Excalibur."

Characters in Excalibur

• Derfel Cadarn
  Derfel Cadarn
  Derfel Cadarn is a fictional character and the main protagonist in The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell. He is a straightforward and gifted warrior who is loyal and trustworthy...
  
   – protagonist
  Protagonist
  A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
  
  , narrator
• Ceinwyn – Derfel's common law wife, princess of Powys
• Arthur
  King Arthur
  King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
  
   – son of Uther, protector of Mordred
  Mordred
  Mordred or Modred is a character in the Arthurian legend, known as a notorious traitor who fought King Arthur at the Battle of Camlann, where he was killed and Arthur fatally wounded. Tradition varies on his relationship to Arthur, but he is best known today as Arthur's illegitimate son by his...
  
  
• Lancelot
  Lancelot
  Sir Lancelot du Lac is one of the Knights of the Round Table in the Arthurian legend. He is the most trusted of King Arthur's knights and plays a part in many of Arthur's victories...
  
   exiled former King of Benoic
• Guinevere
  Guinevere
  Guinevere was the legendary queen consort of King Arthur. In tales and folklore, she was said to have had a love affair with Arthur's chief knight Sir Lancelot...
  
   – Princess of Henis Wyren
• Merlin – Lord of Avalon
  Avalon
  Avalon is a legendary island featured in the Arthurian legend. It first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's 1136 pseudohistorical account Historia Regum Britanniae as the place where King Arthur's sword Excalibur was forged and later where Arthur was...
  
  , druid
  Druid
  A druid was a member of the priestly class in Britain, Ireland, and Gaul, and possibly other parts of Celtic western Europe, during the Iron Age....
  
  
• Mordred
  Mordred
  Mordred or Modred is a character in the Arthurian legend, known as a notorious traitor who fought King Arthur at the Battle of Camlann, where he was killed and Arthur fatally wounded. Tradition varies on his relationship to Arthur, but he is best known today as Arthur's illegitimate son by his...
  
   – child King of Dumnonia
• Nimue – priestess, Merlin's lover
• Taliesin
  Taliesin
  Taliesin was an early British poet of the post-Roman period whose work has possibly survived in a Middle Welsh manuscript, the Book of Taliesin...
  
   – a druidic bard
• Sagramor Arthur's Numidian Commander

Release details

• 1997, UK, Michael Joseph ISBN 0-7181-0057-3, Pub date 2 October 1997, hardcover 1st edition
• 1998, US
  United States
  The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
  
  , St Martins Press ISBN 0-312-18575-8, Pub date 1 June 1998, hardcover
• 1998, UK, Penguin Books ISBN 0-14-023287-7, Pub date 1 October 1998, paperback
• 1999, US
  United States
  The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
  
  , St. Martin's Griffin ISBN 0-312-20648-8 , Pub date 16 July 1999, paperback