The first time I stood in the ruins at Tintagel, when I was much younger, the place took hold of me and wouldn’t let go.
I’m sure some of that stemmed from my fascination with the Arthurian legends I’d read in Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, T. H. White’s The Once and Future King, and Mary Stewart’s Merlin Trilogy. I was so entrenched in the legend that when I saw those majestic cliffs and that gorgeous ruin, I could almost hear knights’ horses thundering over the hills and see the people who lived, loved, and died in the fair castle of my imagination. It felt as if I’d been there before.
Tintagel was said to be the place where King Arthur was conceived and, in some later tellings, where he was born. Much to my disappointment I eventually learned that there is no reliable historical evidence for King Arthur as the legends describe him. Whether some real warrior or ruler lies beneath the stories is still debated.
The Arthurian legend was already centuries old when Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote his History of the Kings of Britain around 1136, but Geoffrey gave Arthur a sweeping biography—and for the first time in writing, placed the beginning of his story at Tintagel.
In Geoffrey’s tale, Uther Pendragon desired Igraine, the wife of Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall. While Gorlois was away fighting, Merlin disguised Uther in the duke’s likeness so he could enter Tintagel and go to Igraine’s bed. She never knew the difference, and Arthur was conceived that night. The claim that Arthur was also born at Tintagel came later, recorded by the antiquary William Worcestre around 1480.
