Anglicans and early in July for the Catholics and they attract visitors from all over Western Europe. Services are celebrated in the Anglican, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions. The abbey site is visited by over 100,000 a year. With regard to Geard's pageant, W. J. Keith notes that "the chapter entitled 'The Pageant' occurs exactly halfway" in the novel, and that because "of its structural and thematic importance is therefore central in two senses of that word". Margaret Drabble also recognizes the importance of this chapter, describing its 55 pages as "a narrative tour de force. She notes that it involves "not only the 50 and more named characters ... but a cast of thousands" with "the whole town ... either taking part or providing the audience". There are Arthurian scenes at the beginning, followed by the Christmas 'Passion Play', and a final a prehistoric portion, which is not performed. "The pageant ends ... unintentionally, with the physical collapse of Evans" playing the role of Christ on the cross. The novel has several climaxes that relate to the completion of the Grail quest of major characters and the murder of Tom Barter. At the novel's end, much of the city is flooded, in reference to the myth that held Glastonbury to be the original Island of Avalon of Arthurian legend. The novel closes with a drowning John Geard looking to Glastonbury Tor (itself referred to repeatedly as the domain of the Welsh king of the Welsh Otherworld (Annwn), Gwyn-ap-Nudd), in hopes of seeing the Grail. A Glastonbury Romance is also the first of several novels by Powys that reflect his growing interest in Welsh mythology, the others are Maiden Castle (1935), Morwyn (1937), Owen Glendower (1941), and Porius (1951). The Welshman Owen Evans, one of the novel's main characters, introduces the idea that the Grail has a Welsh (Celtic), pagan pre-Christian origin. Genre: Romance The novel's title "points to a distinction between romance and novel", and, in his Autobiography, Powys describes Walter Scott's romances, as "by far the most powerful literary influence of my life". Scott defines the romance as "a fictitious narrative in prose or verse; the interest of which turns upon marvellous and uncommon incidents", in contrast to mainstream novels which realistically depict the state of a society. These works frequently, but not exclusively, take the form of the historical novel. The following definition of the word