Terican’s Hill
Turquine, also known as Terican, was the brother of Sir Carados of the Dolorous Tower, but in the Vulgate it appears that he did not help keep the Dolorous Tower. Instead, he had his own collection point for vanquished opponents on the hill named for him. Near this hill was a fountain running through a silver tube onto a marble slab and thence into a leaden vessel.
The fountain was overshadowed by three pines on which hung the shields, helmets, and lances of the knights Terican had conquered. When Sir Ector de Maris arrived, there were sixty shields, including twenty-four belonging to knights of Arthur. Also near or more likely on the hill was a stronghold where Terican kept his prisoners. After Lancelot killed Terican, Arthur’s knights gave the property to one Count del Parc.
The Fountain with the Silver Pipe sounds suspiciously similar to that fountain near which Morgan caused Sir Accolon to awake. This fountain was near the castle of Sir Damas, which was two days’ journey from Camelot – all of which may help to locate Turquine’s Hill and his brother’s Dolorous Tower.
Between Castle Cary and Yeovil, on the escarpment of the oolite, abuting on the plain which extends to Ilchester, is Cadbury, ‘a hill of a mile compass at the top, four trenches encircling it, and twixt every of them an earthen wall; the content of it, within about twenty acres full of ruins and reliques of old buildings … In the fourth ditch is a spring called King Arthur’s Well.
Cadbury is considered a candidate for Camelot, but it sounds like a fine site for Turquine’s Hill, with King Arthur’s Well as the “Fountain of the Silver Pipe.” Yeovil appears to be right on the southern border of Somersetshire and Dorsetshire, which might put it in the Arthurian South Marches.
See also
Cadbury – Camelot | The Legend of King Arthur