Yes, Cornwall was part of Dumnonia but, it seems, a named entity within Dumnonia. Charles Thomas doesn't think that the kingdom of Dumnonia existed before Roman occupation, but I differ here. Even on Caesar's two brief visits nearly a century earlier than the Claudian invasion, he noted kings and kingdoms in Britain's south-east, so I can't see why a south-western one would not have been in existence as well. The Romans didn't take long to get down this way and they named their new fort at Exeter Isca Dumnoniorum, a Latinisation of the Celtic name whch includes the Dumnonian name, so Dumnonia must have existed beforehand.
The name of Cornwall appears in a place name in the Ravenna Cosmography (an itinerary of various routes), compiled around 700 AD from a source c. 400 AD. The names in this list are badly corrupted but "Purocoronavis" has been corrected to "Durocornovio" ('fortress of the Cornish'), now identified as Tintagel. In modern Cornish, this would translate as Dyn Kernowyon (and I strongly urge language users to adopt this for Tintagel Island - if only to totally stick a finger in the eye of my dear friends at 'English' Heritage'!).
If you bear in mind that, in Latin, V is pronounced as a W, there, in the middle of that name is Cornow.
Welsh sources called our mid-6th century king Constantine 'Custennin Gorneu' (Constantine the Cornishman). That Celtic pronunciation of the name explains the (almost forgotten) traditional pronunciation of the village name and also explains the origin of the surname Cossentine - (man of) Constantine, in the same way that Maddern is (man of) Madron parish.
When King Doniert (Donyarth) was drowned in 875, the Welsh Easter Annals described him as 'rex cerniu' (king of Cornwall).
Bear in mind that these examples of Cornwall's native name were all recorded before the name 'England' ever existed - the earliest mention that name, as 'Englaland' is in 890.
The modern spelling, Kernow, is first recorded c.1400(so it ain't that modern).
Um, yes, I have. I write fairly regularly in Cornish World, and have just finished a new book on Cornish archaeological sites called Return to Cornovia (to replace my first two, Belerion and Cornovia), and it's bang up to date (even has Cornwall's THIRD Roman fort - it was only found in February! The second one, which also features, was found last summer - where? No. 2 is a few hundred yards from Restormel Castle. No. 3 surrounds Calstock church). Interesting siting, all three (no. 1, as most will know is at Nanstallon. Bodmin). All 3 on a commanding hillspur overlooking the W side of a major estuary; all three close to the (then) highest navigable points of the three estuaries (Camel, Fowey and Tamar); and all three close to mineral lodes. Any bets against them having taken over total control of sea-going trade, particularly exports of metals?
I wonder what the west side of the Fal is hiding? Or was Carvossa (or the hill fort at Golden) doing that job?
My writing tasks resume next week, with - at last - finishing the third of the Trevelyan trilogy (after The Lyonesse Stone and Seat of Storms, The Tinners' Way is bigger than the first two and is 3/4 complete). I'd have written this long ago but, s**t happens in life - with me it all happened at once and I couldn't write a word for several years. Now, I'm trying to make up for lost time.
I've got a complete MS about the Penwith Moors as well, just need the photos and a publisher.
Then, hopefully before too long, my magnum opus 'Nautilus', which, as the name suggests, is a serious second sequel to the two Jules Verne classics, except that it's set more or less in the present and is a maritime thriller with a strongly environmental theme. And, of course, the star of the show - the 140 year old submarine itself (having survived the Lincoln Island eruption at the end of The Mysterious Island) It would run to something like 500 pages in a paperback (and I really would like a film-maker to read it - wouldn't that be the icing on the cake? Still, if you don't try, you don't get). Locations all over the globe: Antarctica, Krakatau, the Canary Isles, the Maelstrom off the Lofoten Islands - even a shoot-out on the cliffs at Botallack and a car-bomb in London. 15 years in researching it, writing it and trying to push it to publishers.
Now, with all that, the language and the horses as well, who called me lazy?
Well, I can recommend Susan Pearce's "The Kingdom of Dumnonia", which was published by Donald Rawe's Lodenek Press. It's probably out of print now but libraries and 2nd hand bookshops might have it. Also Charles Thomas's "Celtic Britain" and "And Shall these Mute Stones Speak" - superb book about inscribed stones but there's a lot about Dumnonia in there. Another one by Charles Thomas is "The Characters and Origins of Roman Dumnonia" in the Council for British Archaeology's Research Report 7, 1966.
Both of the Cornish kings named Gerent have distinct Cornish identities and the second one was addressed by the Synod of Wessex in 705 as king of Dumnonia.
After that, the Anglo-Saxons of Wessex never used the name, preferring to call Dumnonia "West Wealas". It seems that by the early 9th century, when Ecgberht was being a pain in our backsides, Dumnonia's border had shrunk back from the Axe-Parrott line to the Taw-Exe one (and it seems that it stayed there until Athelstan 100 years later). Sometime between 705 and 815 the name Dumnonia seems to have fallen out of use and, in the late 9th century we see Donyarth referred to as "rex cerniu", from which I assume that the land west of the Exe-Taw line was now the kingdom of Kernow.
The problem, Palores, is that there is too little in the way of written record from that period to be absolutely certain of my belief, or of other thoughts on the matter but the kings of Kernow and the kings of Dumnonia seem to have been the same. Nowhere is there is any mention or even hint that Kernow had one king and Dumnonia another.
Although the term "Dumnonia" fell out of use, it should be remembered that it persists in both "Devon" and, more obviously, in the Welsh and Cornish forms of the word, (Dyfnaint, and however the SWF renders the Cornish cognate)
"The Cornovii were a Celtic tribe who inhabited the far South West peninsula of Great Britain, during the Iron Age, Roman and post-Roman periods and gave their name to Cornwall or Kernow. The Ravenna Cosmography, of around 700, makes reference to Purocoronavis, (almost certainly a corruption of Durocornovium), 'a fort or walled settlement of the Cornovii', (unidentified, but possibly Tintagel or Carn Brea). According to professor Philip Payton, in "Cornwall: A History", the Cornovii were most likely a sect or offshoot of the Dumnonii tribe whose territory included modern day Cornwall, Devon, western parts of Somerset and perhaps the fringes of Dorset. The Cornovii were sufficiently established for their territory to be recorded as Cornubia by c700AD"
Not sure about that map - why isn't Cornwall differently coloured - at least as far east as the Exe-Taw line. It makes it look as though we were part of Wessex which we never were. Anglo-twistory again.
Yes, this one's probably more accurate as up until at least 838 (Hingston Down, Moretonhampstead), Cornovia (Kernow) stretched to the Exe-Taw and it wasn't until 936 that Cornwall's eastern boundary was fixed at the Tamar..
Yes, that's more like it. Interesting how Cumbria/Rheged is shown to extend a lot further south on this map, too.
Do you think that my theory that "Hengestesdun" was near Moretonhampstead and not W of the Tamar is a more realistic proposal?
I don't think that Egberht had much of a chance to follow up on that victory. I think he just dealt with the threat and had rather more on his mind, like Viking incursions elsewhere. In any case, he was dead within a year of Hengestesdun. But, according to the Anglocentric "historians", he then conquered Cornwall. Funny that none of the available sources even come close to making any such claim, or even hint at it.
Pedestrian hit in bypass accident
A man suffers serious injuries after being hit by a car on the A30 bypass near Camborne.
Ex-minister in turbine plan row
A row has broken out between a former minister and residents in a Cornish village over his wind turbine plans.
Man quizzed over pedestrian death
A man is arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving after a man was hit by a car on the A30.
Woman, 77, tagged over cocaine
A 77-year-old woman is to be fitted with an electronic tag after being caught with cocaine in her handbag.
Celibacy the key to a long life
A woman who is celebrating her 105th birthday attributes her long life to remaining celibate.
Fire crews save stuck pig's bacon
Firefighters have to wade through a slurry pit in Cornwall to rescue a sinking pig in danger of drowning.
Apology over ashes ruling
Officials apologise to a man who was refused permission to scatter his mother-in-law's ashes in the shape of a cross.
