And it is a fact that nowhere else in England are there so many
villages bearing the names of saints, and these names strange, and such
as may be sought out in vain in the calendars that are easily
accessible. One is impressed with the idea that the vast majority of
these saints are unknown and negligible quantities.
This, however, is an entirely false assumption, and it is based on the
fact that their history has not been studied.
On close examination it will be found that the saintly names in
Cornwall belong to certain well-defined groups, and when we have
determined the localities occupied by these groups we have taken the
first step towards the elucidation of some important problems in the
early history of Cornwall.
Now let us look at these groups.
I. The first belongs to members of the royal Dumnonian family that
ruled Devon and Cornwall.
The first-known prince was Constantine the Blessed (about 460), whose
brother Aldor migrated to Brittany, and married the sister of Germanus
of Auxerre, who came to Britain in 429 and 447 to oppose the spread of
the Pelagian heresy.
Constantine's son Erbin, prince of the Dumnonii, died about 480. We
know nothing of him save that he was the father of Geraint, the heroic
king who fell at Langport, in Somersetshire, in 522, fighting against
the Saxons.
His name is familiar to us as the husband of Enid, daughter of the lord
of Caerleon, whose virtues and pathetic story have been revived with
fresh interest in Tennyson's idyl. Geraint has left his name at
Dingerrein, where was his palace, near the church he founded--S.
Gerrans, in Roseland--and a tomb, supposed to be his, is still pointed
out. Although his story is preserved in the Mabinogion, this story has
no pretence to be regarded as history.
His first cousin was Gwen of the Three Breasts, married to Fragan, also
a cousin, who migrated to Brittany. There is a curious monument of Gwen
in Brittany, on which she is actually represented as having three
breasts. But the expression three-or four-breasted was used of a woman
who was married thrice or four times, and had a family by each husband.
The mother of S. Domangard was called the four-breasted for no other
reason than this.
Fragan and Gwen had three sons--Winwaloe, Wethenoc or Winock, and
James--and although the great field of their labours was in Brittany,
yet they certainly visited their cousins in Cornwall and obtained
grants of land there, for they founded churches in two districts, where
their names remain to this day somewhat disguised in Gunwalloe,
Lewanick, and Jacobstow. Geraint and Enid had several children; the
eldest was Solomon or Selyf, who died about 550.
He married Gwen, sister of Non, the mother of S. David, and it was due
to this connection that Non and her son came to Cornwall and founded
Altarnon, Pelynt, and Davidstowe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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