Henry Jenner, “The Tristan romance and its Cornish provenance,” Journal of the Royal Institute of Cornwall, vol. XVIII.]

Cornwall abounds with folktales, many of which are comparative with other Celtic cultural traditions. [See Robert Morton Nance, Folk Lore recorded in the Cornish language, Camborne, n.d. Nicholas Boson’s “The Dutchess of Cornwall’s Progresse” is basically a survey of West Penwith folklore (Bodleian Library ms. 10714). An excellent study of this is A. K. Hamilton Jenkin’s “The Dutchess of Cornwall’s Progress,” Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, 1924. A survey of Cornish folktales was made in Robert Hunt’s Popular Romances of the West of England, 1865, and in William Bottrell’s three volumes, Traditions and Hearthside Stories, 1880.]

Cornwall

(Kernow). Known to the Anglo-Saxons as “the land of the Kern-weahlas”—Kern-foreigners—hence Cornwall. It is the setting for much of the Arthurian saga and for the story of Tristan and Iseult. It does feature prominently in several Celtic myths. It emerged as a separate kingdom after the disintegration of Dumnonia in the eighth century. The Irish raided and settled parts of Cornwall during the sixth and seventh centuries, and also during this time missionaries of the Celtic Church, from Ireland and Wales, established many foundations in the country. At Castle Dor, Fowey, stands a monument dated to the sixth century a.d. showing there really was a King Mark and a Tristan in Cornwall. Warfare between the Cornish and the expanding Wessex kingdom continued until the Cornish kings finally submitted to Athelstan (a.d. 925–939) and accepted him as suzerain ruler. It was Athelstan who finally fixed the fluctuating border as the Tamar. In a charter of a.d. 944 Edmund of England styled himself “King of the English and ruler of this British province.” After the Norman invasion the native rulers of Cornwall were known as eorls, or earls. At this time the earl was Cador (sometimes given as Condor), who was a descendent of the Cornish kings. He was deposed by William of Normandy. But Cador’s son, Cadoc, was later restored as “earl of Cornwall.” His daughter Avice married Reginald Fitz Henry, son of Henry I, who held the earldom by right of inheritance through his wife.