Situated on the north Atlantic coast of Cornwall, the village of Tintagel (pronounced with the stress on the second syllable; Cornish: Dintagell) and nearby Tintagel Castle have long been associated with the legends surrounding King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table. The village has, in recent times, become a magnet for tourists and day-trippers.

It was cited originally as a place of origin for King Arthur by the Dark Ages pseudo-historian Geoffrey of Monmouth. Tintagel is also recycled as a locus for the Arthurian mythos by the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson in the poem Idylls of the King.

Major excavations on and around the site of the 12th century castle have revealed that Tintagel headland was the site of a high status fortress and settlement dating to the 5th and 6th centuries and the period immediately following the withdrawal of the Romans from Britain. Finds indicate that considerable trade in high value goods was taking place at the time with the Mediterranean region.

The modern day village of Tintagel was known as Trevena (Cornish: Tre war Venydh) until the 1850s, when the Victorians renamed it to promote tourism on the back of the King Arthur and Camelot legends. Strictly speaking, Tintagel is just the name of the headland.

Tintagel is also the title of an orchestral tone poem by Sir Arnold Bax.

External link

• Tintagel (DMOZ.org)

Archaeology