Tintagil

1. Tintagil
   Tintagel, Tintaguel, Tintaiel, Tintoel

   Naturally, this dukedom is composed of the territory around Tintagil Castle, possibly including more or less the whole northern half of present-day Cornwall.

   Chrétien de Troyes mentions Tintagil as one of Arthur's places for holding court; it was in Tintagil that Erec, still with Arthur's court, heard the news of King Lac's death. Assuming that Tibaut of Tintagil, was one of Arthur's vassals, his recidency there would be quite compatible with Arthur's use of it as a court city.

   
   

2. Tintagil Castle
   Tintagel, Tintaguel, Tintaiel, Tintaioel, Tintaiol, Tintaiuel, Tintaoel, Tintaol, Tintauel, Tyntaguel

   Tintagil Castle on the north coast of Cornwall is now maintained by English Heritage who thankfully have not commercialised the site. It is believed that this location was first a Roman settlement/military outpost, it then became a Celtic stronghold and the home of a Celtic King in the 5th-6th century. It was as a result of the work of Geoffrey of Monmouth, who wrote History of the Kings of Britain [c. 1139]. Tintagil was to become synonymous with the home of Camelot.

   Subsequent legends and stories, together with the works by Richard, Earl of Cornwall of building a castle here, are amongst some of the reasons why Tintagil has been linked to the Arthurian legend. The central reason remains Geoffrey of Monmouth's book. When we are told Arthur's father is Uther Pendragon who fell in love with Igerna (Igraine), the wife of Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall who was said to have lived at Tintagil the association becomes clear. When the Duke later died in a battle Uther and Igerna married.

   King Mark's castle in the tale Tristram and Isolde (Isoud). It were situated on a cliff in Cornwall, giants had built it off ashlars in black and white marble which had been put in a pattern, like the squares on the chessboard. Twice a year no human eye could see it. Before king Mark's time king Arthur's mother Igraine lived in the castle with her first husband who were Duke of Cornwall, later by a couple of giants who held sixty maidens captured there, who had to sew in silk for food and shelter, until Lancelot one day came and ended it all.

   Tintagil was actually built by Reginald of Cornwall, illegitimate son of Henry I in 1140 which was years after the believed life of Arthur (sixth-century). Tintagil was a ruin by AD 1540.

   
   

3. Tintagil Stone

   Also known as the 'Arthur Stone' (Arthur's Stone), a small slate piece unearthed by archaeologists at the eastern terraces of Tintagel Castle on July 4, 1998. Hailed by one archaeologist as "the find of a lifetime", the stone holds two inscriptions - one, broken off, is unreadable. The other reads Pater Coliavifcit Artognov: "Artognou, father of a descendant of Coll, had this built." Speculation is that the stone, dating from the sixth century, was once part of a wall but was later used as a drain cover.

   "Artognou", pronounced "Arthnou", is similar enough to "Arthur" to be an identical person. At the very least, it shows that the name was known to Britons in the sixth century, and that such as person was associated with Tintagel, where King Arthur was supposedly born. "Coll" probably refers to the semi-legendary King Cole mentioned by Geoffrey of Monmouth.

   At the time of the final draft of Christopher W. Bruce's book Arthurian Name Dicitionary (1998), this find had only just been announced in English Heritage. Certainly, additional study of the stone and of the Castle Tintagel is mandated.

   
   

4. Tintagil, The Giants of

   Two unnamed giants took over Tintagil, apparently between the tenure of Gorloïs and that of Mark.

   As a hobby, these giants took upp collecting ladies and damsels as their prisoners. Lancelot killed the pesky pair.