Tintagel. King Arthur. Camelot. We were there in the mists - many stairs, long walks to it, out and up and down. The room foundations of the castle are small. It was not really even a castle, in those days. They had wooden fortress shapes on stone foundations, and stone for other defensive parts, and the remains here show a modest geographic area for them. Walt Disney, take note. See www.archaeology.co.uk/ca/timeline/saxon/tintagel/tintagel.
This is what it really looks like - stone foundations, supporting wooden structures. The legends are many. See www.tintagelweb.co.uk/King%20Arthur.htm>. Was he really here. Where. See www.archaeology.co.uk/ca/timeline/saxon/tintagel/tintagel.htm.
And here is the view outwards.
One of the first chroniclers of King Arthur's exploits was Sir Thomas Malory in his "Morte d'Arthur (1470 or so). In Paul Gray's review of the book, "Malory, The Knight who Became King Arthur's Chronicler, " by author Christina Hardyment (HarperCollins 2006?), and in the NYTimes Review of Books Sunday 8/20/06 at page 12: the thesis is that Malory was a rapist and a thug. Wonderful. See www.harpercollins.com/books/9780066209814/Malory/index.aspx. But interesting. There is some debate as to the identity of the chronicler, but Hardyment looks persuasive that it is indeed the bad boy Malory.
Later Cornwall is known for its tin mining, from the earliest Middle Ages. Skeletons of old tin mines many places against the sky. See www.cornish-mining.org.uk/.
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