However, as she learns to develop her increasing mystical abilities, he gradually loses his own powers and becomes weaker and weaker, finally falling into a coma. While Merlin teaches Nimue his esoteric secrets, they fall in love. Together, they confront her and she confesses that her name is Niniane (with an ‘e’), but that she has always been called Nimue in the past. At first he believes that this person is a young male but Arthur points out to Merlin that he has been deceived and that this is actually a girl in disguise. Merlin predicts that Mordred will, in some way, be responsible for the death of Arthur, and hoping to learn why, he travels undercover in order to keep a watchful eye on the cunning and calculating Morgause.Īt the same time, Merlin has acquired an apprentice named Ninian. Unfortunately Arthur, as a youth, had unwittingly fathered a son, Mordred, after a liaison with his half-sister Morgause. He prevents other zealous lords from claiming the throne and undermining Arthur’s venture to establish Camelot as the heart of British government. At this stage Merlin has found he can best assist Arthur to unite a divided Britain by gathering information undercover from various influential and powerful sources. This third novel in the Merlin trilogy spans the period from when Arthur Pendragon took the throne to the more advanced years of Merlin – a time when the mage’s abilities are in decline. She also added – “but I can hope, in all humility, that my Merlin trilogy may be, for some new enthusiast, a beginning”. She also incorporated elements from other Arthurian legends and candidly begged forgiveness for the many gaps in her knowledge of these tales, stating that - “if I had read more widely, I should never have completed this book”. Like the former books in this series - The Hollow Hills (1973) and The Crystal Cave (1970), Mary Stewart based the story largely on Geoffrey of Monmouth’s highly inventive (and questionable) Arthurian 'history'.

The cover (shown) is from the 2003 Eos edition by HarperCollins. The next in the series is The Wicked Day (1983).

However, it is, in fact, the third of five novels she wrote novel dealing with Arthurian legend. Following on from The Hollow Hills (1973), it is often regarded as the third book in Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy. The Last Enchantment is an Arthurian fantasy novel by Mary Stewart, first published in 1973.

The last enchantment by mary stewart