The Wicked Day was published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1983, a companion to rather than a continuation of the Merlin trilogy. The novel tells the story of Mordred — traditionally the villain of Arthurian legend, the incestuous son who destroys his father — from a radically revisionist perspective.
Stewart’s Mordred is not a villain but a victim of prophecy: raised by fishermen on the Orkney Islands, he is discovered as Arthur’s bastard son (conceived unknowingly with his half-sister Morgause) and brought to court. Arthur acknowledges him, treats him fairly, even loves him — but the prophecy that Arthur’s son will destroy him hangs over every interaction. Mordred grows up knowing that everyone expects him to be the agent of Arthur’s destruction, and the novel traces how this expectation — not malice, not ambition — creates the very disaster it predicts.
The “wicked day” of the title is the final battle of Camlann, where Arthur and Mordred destroy each other — but Stewart presents it not as the working out of evil but as a catastrophe of misunderstanding, of loyal men acting on false information, of a tragedy that everyone can see approaching but no one can prevent because the roles have been assigned by prophecy and reputation.
The novel’s deepest argument is about determinism: whether prophecy creates its own fulfillment, whether telling someone they will be a traitor eventually makes them one, and whether any human being can escape the story that others have written for them.
Collecting The Wicked Day
First edition (Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1983): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First UK edition in dust jacket: $20–$50
- Signed first edition: $40–$100
- US first (Morrow, 1983): $10–$25