CORNWALL, Morwenstow. The Caledonia Shipwreck, Queen Scota?

There is a shipwreck site off Cornwall, the hapless "Caledonia" -- and a figurehead salvaged is, say some, Queen Scota who invaded ancient Ireland, leading her bands of warriors and founding lines of kings.  See Scota, or Scotia, as queen of the tribe of Scotti who then, pressed into Ulster, commenced to raid and then settle in Scotland and fight with Picts against Rome.  Is all that so?  See http://scotlandroadways.blogspot.com/2010/03/caledonia-scotia-and-scotland-before.html


Here she is, as found at Morwenstow, Cornwall, (fair use thumbnail) at
http://www.submerged.co.uk/

The issue of which tribes came from where and did what can never be settled where the bases are oral tradition and legend, then, again, they cannot be totally disregarded.  And, creativity is always in style, see http://www.arbroathtimeline.moonfruit.com/#/0-1099/4518304525.  A more scholarly approach is at http://www.knowth.com/ireland-prehistory.htm

Ancient Ireland.  Cornwall would have been well known to ancient navigators, whether ships were headed to parts unknown and ending up in Ireland, or not. Milesians:  First through Spain, perhaps from the middle east, to Ireland, and Albany -- old name for Scotland.  Is all this fantastic? See http://www.danann.org/library/arch/mil.html

Mount St. Michael's - near Cornwall. St. Michael's Mount

St. Michael's Mount

This is a monastery on an island on the way to the Cornish coast, and was inspired by Mont St. Michel in France. See France Road Ways. We were there toward the end of the afternoon, misty. It has retained more of its old character because it can only be reached by boat or walking. No causeway. They stop the walkers when the tide is coming in. We were among the last allowed to start, and we were already up to our ankles and going to the knees when we finally got across. You walk on a cobble walk that becomes fully submerged. Check the tides if you want the luxury of choosing to walk or not.

Coming back, the tides gave no choice but to hop on the little motor launches. The island is not full of shops and tourists, some, but quite quiet. See www.castlexplorer.co.uk/england/st-michaels-mount/smm.php.

Jack the Giant Killer.

Jack is supposed to have defeated the Giant Cormoran here, after making him fall into a pit. Great Cornish legends. See www.gandolf.com/cornwall/places/mountstmichael.

The full tale is worth reading, if you have your glasses because the print is small - visit Andres Lang's Fairy Books, "The History of Jack the Giant Killer", at http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/291.htmSee also Migratory Patterns of Tales, Jack the Giant Killer>

Cornwall - Mousehole, Penzance, St. Ives; and Wreckers; Cornish pasties

A clerk at the hotel in Salisbury spent his honeymoon at Mousehole (pronounced Mouzill), so we had to go. See it at www.chycor.co.uk/travel-tips/penzance/mousel; and its lovely harbor at www.cornwall-online.co.uk/westcornwall/mousehole. Worth the trip, but dicey parking on the steep little streets. We finally went out on the jetty. See www.chycor.co.uk/travel-tips/penzance/penzance.

We were interested in the wrecker tradition of Cornwall. We had read that people known as wreckers years ago, for centuries, went out at night with false lights to lure sailors to the rocks. Once the ships wrecked, the wreckers kill the survivors and loot them and the ship. Wonderful. Even movies about them. We heard that the practice was common also in old New Jersey, USA, and anywhere there are rocks and cliffs and lighthouses to be imitated. Wrong?

Apparently that is not all true. See www.connexions.co.uk/culture/shpwrck. That site says that nature did the wrecking on the Cornwall coast. People and false lights were not needed there at Cornwall - it was so hazardous on its own. You travel, you learn something. See the site on Cornish culture at www.connexions.co.uk/culture.htm#M.

Delights. Cornish pasties: not a burlesque, but a food: www.cornish-links.co.uk/pasty. Empanadas with an accent.

St. Ives. Hear the Mother Goose rhyme about the one going to St. Ives, who met the man with seven wives, at www.repeatafterus.com/title.php?i=1354&PHPSESSID=a06421908ce8b6bb6d487446ce9d5bf5. . Go to the dot com home page, then navigate until you identify the rest of the address.

Cornwall - Tintagel, King Arthur

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/.