To Mr Cornwell,
I have been a fan now for a couple of years, your books sent me into researching coinage, early British exports to Europe, as usual I was provoked to thought...
Arthur, Eohhere, Uther, ohhere,
When we lived in Dorset, we visited Eggardon hill, Eohhere's Hill, by translation. It is a truly breathtaking site, especially in the evening after a summer's hot day, when the white mist rises to fill the deep dry river valleys that now run seawards.
My mother a keen walker, botanists and amateur researcher liked to take us on country walks, in which botany and history, are a focal point, we Roman remained, climbed summits, walked river banks and visited quarry cliffs and screes searching for ancient sea bones or shells.
So, when I say that Eggardon Hill has a seemingly magical air about it, you will understand, it really does have a unique atmosphere.
At the bottom of a steep slope to the northern privately owned landward part of Eggardon Hill, is what I would call a geological anomaly, it could be an ancient rubbish dump, not uncommon, an area where there had been a cliff fall, although the hill slope is not that steep!
Eggardon Hill, is well situated to reach all places, like London, Wales, and the Coast fast and with relative ease is on ancient trackways, and the arterial London route from the South West, Bristol and Salisbury etc are on a good dry flat route...
Eggardon like Eohhere both equally sound like Arthur or etymological translations of Arthur, the site is grand enough for a Royal defensible base, and central enough to that world.
Arthur is historically buried under a hill, since visiting the hill, and seeing that geological anomaly, the hill is chalky limestone, and seeing documentaries on the way Saxon warriors etc were buried, in Europe, it strikes me that Eohhere might well be buried under that hill.
There is also a linked hill that was once the site of a Royal Castle, providing supporting evidence to hypothesis a lineage of Monarchical ownership...
A previous owner of the private part of the hill, was a Smuggler pirate, running rum and brandy up from the coast, in the river valleys no doubt, but wouldn't he have needed a large undiscovered hidden cave system to store the cargo, from his huge smuggling operation..?
I would love someone to consider Eggardon Hill, as a potential Camelot, with Arthur hidden beneath its northern edge, in true Saxon warrior burial style.
And hope the Dorset smuggler didn't find this ancient treasure and turn it into a fleet of smuggling ships...
Kim
It’s a wonderful thought! You (I) get into immense trouble whenever I suggest a real location for mythical places, but I’ll risk it by saying I’m fairly convinced that Camelot (the name was a very late invention) was South Cadbury Hill. I do Eggardon though!