https://www.transceltic.com/blog/discovery-of-ancient-remains-of-celtic-woman-tree-coffin-switzerland-reminds-us-of-when-celts
Thou soul of God's best earthly mould!
Thou happy soul! and can it be
That these two words of glittering gold
Are all that must remain to thee?
She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and oh!
The difference to me.
The two stanzas are taken (respectively) from 'If Nature for a Favourite Child' and 'She Dwelt among th' Untrodden Ways'
by William Wordsworth's in his 'Lyrical Ballads'.
Post-Roman Inscribed Stones: West Penwith
GULVAL: Church. VRIVI.... Part of C10/11 cross shaft
GULVAL: Trevaylor Hill. ....IVMI...(?) Illegible. Now gatepost into a field off the road. Found in 1890, when read as: “...IVM....PI (?)
GULVAL: Bleu Bridge. QVENATAVCI IC / DINVI FILIVS (mid/late C6). “Q (lies) here, son of D.” ‘Quenataucus’ is Irish, including the element <quenn>, “head, chief”. ‘Dinui’ is Latin genitive for spoken ‘Dinawi’, from Primitive Irish ‘Denawas’; Old Irish: ‘Dinnu’.
HAYLE” Carnsew. HIC PA / CE NVP(ER) / REQVIEVIT / CVNAIDE / HIC / (IN) TVMVLO / IACIT / VIXIT / ANNOS / XXXIII (C5, probably not later than 450-475). “Here in peace lately went to rest Cunaida. Here in the grave she lies. She lived 33 years.” The name is probably a Latin genitive singular of a Prim. Irish name “Cunaida”, with ....E for ...AE. NVP now almost undetectable; (IN) virtually worn smooth since 1843; O of TVMVLO obliterated by old breakage. Originally set at the W end of a cist-grave 6-8ft long, with 4 roof slabs. Discovered prone on cist-grave mound in 1843, when the road (Foundry Lane) was under construction. The stone is 6ft long x 1ft x 8ins, and transversely fractured in two places. The grave was filled with sand, charcoal and ashes, and covered by a mound of loose stones. The stone bears a natural cross of tourmaline (vertical) and quartz (horizontal) veins, and may have been selected for this feature. The grave site lay below the Iron Age fort of Carnsew, which was almost certainly in re-use as a post-Roman trading centre, and linked with the Uí Liatháin clan of Cork, Ireland. Carnsew Fort itself might have been the ‘Dún maic Liatháin i tírib Bretan Cornn’ (‘fort of the sons of Liatháin in the land of the Cornish Britons’) of the ‘Sanas Cormaic’ written c.900, and held by that clan c.450, so contemporary with the grave and inscribed stone. The stone was removed to the Hayle Heritage Centre in 2018 for its protection.
LELANT: Trencrom. Illegible , in two lines. The stone is now horizontal in a stile between the road and Trencrom Hill.
MADRON: Church. VIR / QONFAL FILIV(S) / GVENNORCIT (early C7). “(My) husband Q, son of G.” Small panel with 3 vertical lines at base; paddle-armed cross in line with looped terminals at top, suggesting the memorial stone of a priest. Staggered transverse line after QONFAL. VIR, Latin “man”, probably for “husband” is unique in British inscriptions of this period. QONFAL has Q representing C or K; F for lenited M: the name is <Conmael>, from British <cuno-maglos>, “princely hound”. The dead man’s father is British <uenn-orgit->, “fair slayer”.
MADRON: Mên Scryfa, or Mên Scryfys. RIALOBRANI / CVNOVALI / FILI (mid C6). “R. son of C (lies here)”. The names are British <rigalo-brano-s>, “regal or kingly raven” and <cuno-ualo-s>, “worthy or valiant hound”. A linear cross is faintly cut under the I of RIALOBRAN, the I being extended downward to form a branch of the cross which may or may not be contemporary with the inscription.
PAUL: Kerris. MACARI / CARASIMILIVS (late C6 or early C7). First recognised by C. Weatherhill in Dec. 1996, in C18 cottage on the inside of a stone forming the monolithic left side of a fireplace. Roman <Macarius> (Greek: <Makarios>), also found at the Slaughter Bridge Stone, Worthyvale, Minster; the second name may be British, containing <cara->, “love”, or <caras-> as a contraction of the first part of <Carausius> as a prefix to a known name Aemiliac (Emiliauc, found in place-name Domellick, St Dennis).
PAUL: Churchtown. Ogam stone found in a field near parish church in 2009. No traceable Latin inscription. Unusually arranged as fragmentary inscriptions on 3 separate incised stem lines: P(?)S; possibly ....(MA)QI PL....A. Not datable.
PENZANCE: Market Cross. P..CVMVIN / FO...? QVICVMQ: / PA.. / VENITHI / CO...., i.e. ‘Procumbent in foris. Quicumque pace venit hic, oret’ (‘They lie here in the open. Whosoever comes here in peace, let him pray’). Early C11 high cross, ornamented in panels. Also: R..GISI / CRUX, i.e. ‘Raegisi crux’, (‘cross of Raegisi, or Raesige’). Macalister’s ‘Regis Ricati Crux’ was a misreading. A further inscription: D+T / I / X stands for ‘Domini Christi crux’ (‘cross of [the] Lord Christ’). Additional codes, discovered by Prof. Charles Thomas, within the longer inscription, give three chronograms: MVII, recording the date 1007, and an additional name WIWEHT (for ‘Wicgweht’), perhaps the name of the sculptor. Both personal names appear to be Saxon, and both may have been churchmen appointed by Canterbury to Madron church, then the mother church of Penzance and of Alverton Manor. The cross is believed to have originally stood as the centrepiece in a manorial cemetery located on the site of the Alfred Smith store and the P.O. Sorting Office, just E. of St John’s Hall.
ST BURYAN: Vellansagia. Now lying prone in the garden of Boskenna House. It has been used as a gatepost, an outhouse lintel, and a mount for a small cannon, and therefore damaged. Incomplete wording in two vertical lines within a partial cartouche, with upper inner compartment containing a probable A and W (for ‘Alpha’ and ‘Omega’). EVOCATI / CA(T).... Compare Ogam IVACATTOS, County Kildare, Ireland; and EBICATOS, Silchester (f the latter is genuine. The name may be from British: <epi-cato-s>, “battle steed, war horse”.
ST JUST: Boslow. TAET / VERA with schemitised cross or human figure below, inscribed in its western face (late C7). On S side is a contemporary equal-armed cross with expanded terminals. The E face carries a small medieval or modern linear cross. The stone is set in its original position, in a low mound containing large stones, almost certainly a grave-mound that extended eastward from the stone. Apparently a single name ‘Taetuera’ (‘Taithuere’), the last A likely to be an obscure vowel rather than a feminine nominative. The name contains Prim. Cornish elements meaning “travel, journey” and “exalt, praise”. ?”Exalter of the journey”? Probably the grave and marker of a priest. In 1613, the stone was known as ‘Crowze East’, i.e. <crows Ust>, “St Just’s cross”, which might conceivably identify the “exalter of the journey”, as the parish saint was famous in legend for his journeys to St Keverne, and to the Roseland as far as his chapel at Gorran Haven.
ST JUST: Church. SELVS IC IACIT (early C6) on W. face with small NI above SELVS, thought by some to be an integral part of the name (SENILUS or SELNIUS), but may be a later addition: an ironic Cornish negative to reinterpret the inscription as “Selus does not lie here”. The S face has an upright cross and Rho hook within a wide rectangular cartouche. Before 1906, “T.W.S.” wrote to a local newspapaer to say that he and a gentleman visitor saw PRESBYTER, “priest” in Roman capitals 37mm high across the bottom of the shaft before being placed in its modern base stone.
ST JUST: Kenidjack valley. V(?)....S.... Tail of S with forked serif. A fragment found by Peter Herring by the roadside in 1990. There is a hint of a letter fom a lower line.
ST LEVAN: Porthgwarra. Seen in C17, but since lost. ....HS SPED (HS for IUS?), within a rectangular cartouche.
SANCREED: Churchyard 1. .... / FILIVS IC. Macalister read EROCAVI on first line, now illegible. Mid C6, near top of stone as inverted and re-used in C12 as a high cross.
SANCREED: Churchyard 2. RUNHO. Late C10 high cross. Compare with RUHOL on the Roseworthy, Gwinear high cross, now at Lanherne, St Mawgan. ?Sculptor’s name RUNHOL?
Comments
Lucas Nott What about the one in Phillack Churchyard?
Craig Weatherhill That's EAST Penwith!
Lucas Nott My eyes missed the West part, just saw Penwith lol- Craig Weatherhill But now that you ask: PHILLACK: Churchyard. CLOTVALI / MOBRATTI (late C6 or, probably, early C7). Macalister's FILI does not exist, a stepped flaw in the granite being misinterpreted. British <cluto-ualo-s>, "worthy of fame", followed by the epithet <mo(g)>, "great", <bratto-s>, "judgement". The memorial of a possible judge or magistrate, "Clodwal, great of judgement".
Paul Francis Craig Weatherhill or St. Hilary?- Lucas Nott Paul Francis That would be more South than West
- Paul Francis Lucas Nott West of Hayle & Lelant.
- Craig Weatherhill Take a line from the Hayle estuary to Marazion Marsh, and west of that is West Penwith. The Carnsew Stone at Hayle only just squeaked into this.
Gloria Townsin I went through Gulval yesterday what a lovely village it looks. Actually quite impressive.- Craig Weatherhill Largely rebuilt by the Bolitho family in the late 19th century, and the architecture is typically them. It was full of thatched cottages prior to that.
Gloria Townsin Craig Weatherhill ah that’s why It felt like a distinguished village. Would have likely been lovelier when it was thatched cottages.
Christopher Dunkerley Gloria Townsin good to hear. We will be staying there in Sept for a week before the Gorsedh. I have found new Johns family history lnks to Heamoor and surrounding areas.
Jonathan Polkest Churchtown Gulval is easy on the eye, the land adjoining Madron parish and Trevaylor too, I have fears about the steady enclosing developments at Eastern Green creeping up...actually galloping amuck over Gulvals renowned prime growing fields
Craig Weatherhill The Madron church inscribed stone, Cornwall's most beautifully decorated example.
Jim Wearne Wish I'd known it was there when I went to Madron Well.- Lucas Nott Anyone visiting it should take note that Madron Church has possibly the most inconvenient opening times of any church I've ever seen! They can be found on the church's web site and are on the days and times when the majority of people are working.
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