Birth of Cornwall
Gone Medieval
00:00
The Vikings in Cornwall - Is There a Connection?
The Cornish are active members of the IRC slave trade. They were used to dealing with raiders from Ireland, and tin is a very difficult metal to refine in early medieval technology. So you wouldn't necessarily want to antagonise them when they do control such an important commodity. There are two riddles in the Exeter book which talk about slavery, and both of them talk about Welsh people being involved. One of them even talks about being dragged in fetters over mores, which is very much the landscape between Exeter and Cornwall. And by the time you get to the doomsday book, Cornwall has a very high population of slaves as a percentage. It's fascinating listening to all
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