A Prince of Cornwall

A Prince of Cornwall

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Title: A Prince of Cornwall A Story of Glastonbury and the West in the
Days of Ina of Wessex
Author: Charles W. Whistler
Release Date: August 29, 2004 [EBook #13315]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A PRINCE
OF CORNWALL ***

Produced by Martin Robb

A PRINCE OF CORNWALL:
A Story of Glastonbury and the West in the Days of Ina of Wessex; by
Charles W. Whistler.
PREFACE.

CHAPTER I.
HOW OWEN OF CORNWALL WANDERED TO SUSSEX, AND
WHY HE BIDED THERE.

CHAPTER II.
HOW ALDRED THE THANE KEPT HIS FAITH, AND OWEN
FLED WITH OSWALD.

CHAPTER III.
HOW KING INA'S FEAST WAS MARRED, AND OF A VOW
TAKEN BY OSWALD.

CHAPTER IV.
HOW THE LADY ELFRIDA SPOKE WITH OSWALD, AND OF
THE MEETING WITH GERENT.

CHAPTER V.
HOW OSWALD FELL INTO BAD HANDS, AND FARED EVILLY,
ON THE QUANTOCKS.

CHAPTER VI.
HOW OSWALD HAD AN UNEASY VOYAGE AND A PERILOUS
LANDING AT ITS END.

CHAPTER VII.
HOW OSWALD CROSSED THE DYFED CLIFFS, AND MET
WITH FRIENDS.

CHAPTER VIII.
HOW OSWALD LOST A HUNT, AND FOUND SOMEWHAT
STRANGE IN CAERAU WOODS.

CHAPTER IX.

WHY IT WAS NOT GOOD FOR OWEN TO SLEEP IN THE
MOONLIGHT.

CHAPTER X.
HOW THE EASTDEAN MANORS AND SOMEWHAT MORE
PASSED FROM OSWALD TO ERPWALD.

CHAPTER XI.
HOW ERPWALD FELL FROM CHEDDAR CLIFFS; AND OF
ANOTHER WARNING.

CHAPTER XII.
OF THE MESSAGE BROUGHT BY JAGO, AND A MEETING IN
DARTMOOR.

CHAPTER XIII.
HOW OSWALD AND HOWEL DARED THE SECRET OF THE
MENHIR, AND MET A WIZARD.

CHAPTER XIV.
HOW OSWALD FOUND WHAT HE SOUGHT, AND RODE
HOMEWARD WITH NONA THE PRINCESS.

CHAPTER XV.
HOW ERPWALD SAW HIS FIRST FIGHT ON HIS WEDDING
DAY.

CHAPTER XVI.
OF MATTERS OF RANSOM, AND OF FORGIVENESS ASKED

AND GRANTED.

CHAPTER XVII.
HOW OSWALD FOUND A HOME, AND OF THE LAST PERIL OF
OWEN THE PRINCE.
NOTES.

PREFACE.
A few words of preface may save footnotes to a story which deals with
the half-forgotten days when the power of a British prince had yet to be
reckoned with by the Wessex kings as they slowly and steadily pushed
their frontier westward.
The authority for the historical basis of the story is the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle, which gives A.D. 710 as the year of the defeat of Gerent,
king of the West Welsh, by Ina of Wessex and his kinsman Nunna.
This date is therefore approximately that of the events of the tale.
With regard to the topography of the Wessex frontier involved,
although it practically explains itself in the course of the story, it may
be as well to remind a reader that West Wales was the last British
kingdom south of the Severn Sea, the name being, of course, given by
Wessex men to distinguish it from the Welsh principalities in what we
now call Wales, to their north. In the days of Ina it comprised Cornwall
and the present Devon and also the half of Somerset westward of the
north and south line of the river Parrett and Quantock Hills. Practically
this old British "Dyvnaint" represented the ancient Roman province of
Damnonia, shrinking as it was under successive advances of the Saxons
from the boundary which it once had along the Mendips and Selwood
Forest. Ina's victory over Gerent set the Dyvnaint frontier yet westward,
to the line of the present county of Somerset, which represents the limit
of his conquest, the new addition to the territory of the clan of the
Sumorsaetas long being named as "Devon in Wessex" by the
chroniclers rather than as Somerset.
The terms "Devon" or "Dyvnaint," as they are respectively used by
Saxon or Briton in the course of the story, will therefore be understood
to imply the ancient territory before its limitation by the boundaries of
the modern counties, which practically took their rise from the wars of

Ina.
With regard to names, I have not thought it worth while to use the
archaic, if more correct, forms for those of well-known places. It seems
unnecessary to write, for instance, "Glaestingabyrig" for Glastonbury,
or "Penbroch" for Pembroke. I have treated proper names in the same
way, keeping, for example, the more familiar latinised "Ina" rather than
the Saxon "Ine," as being more nearly the correct pronunciation than
might otherwise be used without the hint given by a footnote.
The