The Cornish Elements in the Arthurian Tradition

Abstract

CORNWALL and the West Country looms large in the Arthurian tradition as it has become known to insular readers. Naturally, therefore, much has been claimed in the past for Cornwall's part in the origin and growth of the tradition. In the years around the turn of the century it was urged in a series of papers by F. Lot (I), W. Gruffydd (2), G. Paris (3), and most of all by J. Loth (4), that Cornwall played a very considerable part in the formulation and transmission of the Arthurian stories, and of the 'Tristan'. W. Gruffydd stated his belief very firmly 'To the Dumnonii must be given the credit of cradling the superb mythology of Arthur' (5). Loth's arguments depended principally on the identification of place-names found in the variant versions of the 'Tristan' with place-names in South-West Britain, but Smirnov ate away at Loth's arguments (6), and there is now general agreement that what remains of Loth's list of place-names belongs to the very latest, and not the very earliest, phases in the history of the story, when, after Io66, Breton and French conteurs re-located some of the events of the 'Tristan' in South Western Britain. More recently, some scholars have recorded their belief in at least some early material with Arthurian connections rooted in Cornwall. Loomis says, 'The Bretons were not the creators of a body of fiction independent of their Cornish and Welsh kinsmen' (7)Tatlock, not the man to over-estimate the wider importance of Celtic traditions, when dealing with the prominence given to Cornwall by Geoffrey of Monmouth, says 'Probably Geoffrey knew Arthurian traditions in Cornwall', and concluded, 'Most of the four localities (Tintagel, Dimilioc, Ridcaradock, and the River Camblanus) were connected with Arthur before Geoffrey wrote.... Geoffrey did not start the whole of this' (8). Mrs Bromwich's