King Arthur and Tintagel Castle
Last night BBC2 broadcast a really interesting and well researched documentary featuring Tintagel Castle. If you have access to BBC iPlayer you can view it here. When we consider the possible origins of
King Arthur and Tintagel Castle
Last night BBC2 broadcast a really interesting and well researched documentary featuring Tintagel Castle. If you have access to BBC iPlayer you can view it here. When we consider the possible origins of the King Arthur story and his links to Tintagel Castle, it always opens up many other questions and possible subjects for research. The documentary included and considered genetic discoveries, archaeological evidence, ancient manuscripts and expert opinions.
But the topic is so complicated that a series of documentaries would not be amiss. I was disappointed by the conclusion to the programme and a lack of evidence for King Arthur’s battles against the Saxon invaders. Before we can be sure that there is no true foundation to idea of invading Saxons fighting the Romano-Celts, we need to know that we have checked in all the right places. It does depend upon what constitutes a battle. It also depends if we can pin down the locations where King Arthur’s twelve great victories took place. The Cornish battle site at Slaughterbridge, where King Arthur was defeated and ‘mortally wounded’ could have been mentioned in the documentary, but it wasn’t. This location is just a short march from Tintagel Castle. I’m not saying there were definitely twelve great victorious battles, or that Slaughterbridge was unlucky thirteen. But there is more to be discovered and understood.
The interpretation of the Tintagel Castle site by expert historians and archaeologists has metamorphosed within the last 100 years or so, from King Arthur’s ‘birthplace’, to being an ‘early Celtic Christian Monastery’, to an important Trading Center, and currently, a ‘seat of ancien