Notes on the Cornish Place-Name Tintagel (a Galfridian Substitution for the Welsh Caer Dathal)

Tintagel

Caer Engan/Caer Dathal

The local form of Tintagel - Dundadgel - is something I have only found in Ekwall and in a couple of other old sources.  To confirm that such a spelling (or pronunciation?) did occur, I have sent queries to the Cornish Archives and Studies Library. For now I can only say this: Patrick Sims-Williams (in his IRISH INFLUENCE ON MEDIEVAL WELSH LITERATURE) discusses 'phonetic confusion of d and t and scribal confusion of c and t.'  Then there is the standard Welsh c to g mutation.  If spellings and/or pronunctiations of -tagel were similar enough to Dathal, and I am right about Eliwlad grandson of Uther and Madog son of Uther both belonging at Caer Engan near Nantlle (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2022/12/a-new-identification-for-uthers-caer.html), and CULHWCH AND OLWEN is correct in claiming the Uther was related to the men of the Arfon fort, with Arthur taking a wife from there, then we must allow for the strong possibility that Arthur's origin is to be found at Caer Engan.  NOT at Tintagel.  The latter would be, as long has been suspected, merely a relocation indulged in by Geoffrey of Monmouth for his fictional history on the kings of Britain.

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Andrew Climo of The University of Exeter has been kind enough to get back to me concerning the Cornish place-name Tintagel.  His response was quite thorough, and I have included it in totality below:

Summary

Toponymists have struggled with this name for decades and place name evidence for Tintagel is sparse. One way forward is to go with the attested form Tintaieol as a basis, as it may preserve the Cornish pronunciation from c.1200. Toponymists have glossed over the matter of the <o/e> alternation, but this is adequately borne out by the examples provided in the texts. Unfortunately, this makes Weatherhill’s highly attractive Tente D’Agel ‘Devil’s Stronghold’ look unlikely. It is reasonable to substitute initial <d> and assume that ‘Din’, fortress, is the prototheme on the basis of consonance. This renders Dintajeol. One could then leave open the matter of whether *Tajeol was a personal name, refers to the Devil (C. ‘Dyawl’), or something different entirely. This way forward accounts for all morphological features seen within the texts and provides a usable form.

Sources and Hypotheses

Sources (in Padel, 1988; Weatherhill, 2005). The following apply to Tintagel Head and/or Castle:

·        Padel: Tintagol c.1137; Tyntagel 1208

·        Weatherhill: Tintagol c.1145

As both point out the settlement of Tintagel was Trewarvene 1259; and Trevenna c.1870 (Padel). Weatherhill thinks the name is Norman French Tente d’Agel ‘Devil’s Stronhold’, cf. Tintagau (Sark).

Ekwall’s assumes a <dg> spelling, perhaps based on the notion that Middle English <g> is [dʒ]. The spelling <dg> appears speculative although was used in Middle Cornish from time to time although the Norman French usage of <g> was also common and <gg> is also found. Neo-Cornish uses the graph <j> to represent [dʒ], and native Cornish names used would have derived from either <s> or <d> in Old Cornish.

Phonology

There is a need for additional forms to make a clearer determination on linguistic grounds, but Layamon’s Brut (in Project Gutenburg), which is in Middle English, shows Tintateol, presumably a transcription error from Tintaieol, which also occurs in that text, as well as the form Tintageol, which suggests that <g> really was pronounced [dʒ] ~ <j>.

The initial <t> is easily explained as a substitution for <d> ~ [d], and as pointed out by Padel (1985, p.85) is found in names such as Tenby, Tintern. Initial fortis (hardening of d à t or g à k) is not much of a stretch, particularly resulting from consonance (so the consonants at the front, middle or end then agree).

If Weatherhill is correct that the name is NF and one can assume <g> ~ <j> ~ [dʒ], then Tente d’Agel could be rendered in Cornish as Tentajel. The alternation of spellings <e/i> is common in C. and whether it is of any consequence or not is a question for another day and still occupies C. users of different persuasions.

On the other hand, if Padel is correct and it is C., then it would be spelt in MC something like Dintajel, Dintajol or Dintajeol. Din is the m. noun ‘fortress’ so *tajel/tajol/tajeol is a qualifying name, noun or adjective, presumably in MC. However, the suggestion that *tajel < *tagell ‘neck’, ‘noose’ or ‘constriction’ is problematic: Whilst it makes topographically tempting, it would require a NF qualifying noun added to a C. prototheme and then a series of changes to occur to provide the present spelling (Din > Din-tagell > Dintajeol > Tintagel). This seems a bit of a stretch. The other issue is that there is a vowel alternation <o/e> or possibly <eo>, which should not be casually dismissed (neither Padel nor Weatherhill address this).

Morpheme Splitting

There are several ways that tajeol might be split: (i) ta-, (ii) taj- or (iii) taje-. The first way of splitting might suggest the preposition -to or -de ‘unto’, which typically requires a personal name following. ‘Devil’ was diavol (Voc. Cor.), so the hypothesis of ‘Devil’s Fortress’ could conceivably work with a little forcing: *Dintodiavol > *Dintodyawl > *Dintojawl. Second and third way of splitting would suggest an OC root *tadi- or *tado-, and potentially an instrumental suffix -illo: *tadoel > *tajeol. As a parallel, one thinks of the name *teuto-uualos ‘Warrior of the People’ > *Tudwal.[1]

[1]

On the name Dathal, from Page 172 of "Irish Influence on Medieval Welsh Literature" by Patrick Sims-Williams (Oxford, 2011):

Possibly the name and character Tathal twyll goleu was extracted from the Welshplace-name Caer Tathal/Dathal in Arfon, facing the Irish Sea, which features in theFourth Branch of the Mabinogi.228 Yet as Tathalius occurs as the name of an Irish king in the Vita Sancti Tathei, written after 1120, probably by Caradog of Llancarfan,229 it presumably could represent some Irish name, both in the place-name in Arfon and in Culhwch.

226 Loth, ‘Mabinogi de Math vab Mathonwy’, pp. 290–91, objected to the derivation Tathal <Tu´athal. Cf. Pedeir Keinc, edited by Williams, pp. 251–52; Thomas, Enwau Afonydd, p. 52. Thepeculiar Tethel for Tu´athal in Vita Griffini, edited and translated by Russell, }6, and HistoriaGruffud vab Kenan (edited by Evans, pp. clxxiv, 4, and 54; also Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts,edited by Bartrum, pp. 37 and 135–36) may well be a corruption of *Twthel or similar; cf. thevariants Dwthil, Twthyl, etc., ibid., pp. 99–100. The second Irish a [@] may have been treated asequivalent to a Welsh svarabhakti vowel and spelled accordingly. Compare the forms of Caer Dathyldiscussed by Loth and Williams, the Middle Welsh spellings of cathl and dathl, and the discussion ofcoruil, p. 169 above. For Brychan’s genealogy see Early Welsh Genealogical Tracts, edited byBartrum, p. 213, s.n. Tathal. 

227 cf. Dyrnog/Tyrnog above, p. 153, and Dwthil/Twthyl in the preceding note. 

228 See n. 226 above. The Old Breton Ta(i)tal mentioned by Bromwich and Evans, Culhwch andOlwen, p. 69, can hardly be relevant. 

229 Vitae Sanctorum Britanniae, edited and translated by Wade-Evans, p. 270; Davies, Book ofLlandaf and the Norman Church in Wales, pp. 108 and 134–36. The name Tathalius was probablychosen to alliterate with that of his son Tatheus (a form of the biblical name Thaddeus: Stowe Missal,edited by Warner, fols 12v and 32v).