sistermagpie @ April 2 2003, 18:23:50 UTC

Tintagal, I assume, refers to what is said to be King Arthur's castle. I'm pretty sure it's in Cornwall (the remains, that is).

And The Dark is Rising was always my favorite. Hermione is so right about not starting one without having the others.:-)

And Lupin, it's so cool he loves DWJ! They've got all the boy wizards covered now: Harry, Cat and Christopher from Chrestomanci and Will from The Dark is Rising!

anjaliesque @ April 2 2003, 18:35:55 UTC

Ah, it's been so long since I read any King Arthur tales of old. Must crack open those books too.

Now that I've got both yours and Hermione's recommendation, I must absolutely finish The Dark Is Rising! For some reason I only got a little ways in and never continued, but I shall now strive to change that.

All the boy wizards, it's fantastic! You can never have too many.

Wouldn't it be absolutely marvelous if one of the teachers embarked on Muggle Studies and began issuing reading lists of Muggle children's literature? It would have to be children's, there's not a better place to start. I would be visiting the library every day! And, of coures, I'd love to hear potterstinks's thoughts on Peter Pan. Mwah.

sistermagpie @ April 2 2003, 19:16:46 UTC

With TDiR you can either start with Over Sea Under Stone or the second book, which is also called The Dark is Rising. That's the one where Will (my first love!) is introduced. He's the wizard.:-) It's pretty different in tone and was written years later. Then all the characters meet up in the third book.

God, I would love to see potterstinks dealing with Peter Pan. Probably he'd be suggesting deadly wards they should have put on the windows and hexes to put on a captured shadow!

cuppatea @ April 2 2003, 19:46:53 UTC

Mm, Tintagel. The castle where King Arthur was supposedly born, in North Cornwall, now in ruins and on a headland that will somecday crash back into the sea.

And DWJ rocks! Hermione has excellent taste in children's books, if not history books.

kat99999 @ April 3 2003, 01:51:07 UTC

Mm, Tintagel.

Heeh, I went there a few years ago - it's nice, but the being-high-up thing scared the crap out of me. It was a beautiful place though, the whole village is so pretty!

cuppatea @ April 3 2003, 04:52:11 UTC Re:

Oh, you've been there! I actually just returned from a trip there — lovely lovely place. The remains of the houses on top were especially cool. (And the sturdy stairs and railings helped me — I'm not normally keen on heights either.) The only sad thing is the amount of development: I was there with a friend who'd been there ten years previously; we were sad because she said it had been much less developed before. This time there were little housing developments and cottages and fake castle-hotels that felt as if they covered half the ground between the main road and the castle. Of course, it's not as if I wasn't contributing to the tourism boom myself. *sheepish grin*

kat99999 @ April 3 2003, 07:18:08 UTC Re:

No way, there was housing? There wasn't housing when I went but that was around about three or four years ago now! When you were in Cornwall did you happen to go to Polperro? That was the nicest town ever, along with Mevagissey... man, I so loved it down there - would love to go back! I'm just surprised anyway down along that way is becoming commercialised, because it seems very against it, or it did when I went!

cuppatea @ April 3 2003, 13:21:38 UTC Re:

You know how the road runs through town, then just after the path down to Tintagel, the road turns right? Then it runs parallel to the coast for a bit, and then turns left and runs toward the coast and the other path that leads around Barras Nose. Where the road ends, there's a big monstrosity that looks like a cross between a Renaissance castle and my high school (a big hotel, actually). To the left of the road, between the road and the coast, there are a slew of holiday cottages and new developments. I don't know if they were there when you were there, but they look reasonably new, particularly the ones closest to the hotel. And on the road into town, there were plenty of housing developments that my friend didn't remember from 10 years ago. You could take a look at this map to see if the village has grown since you were there. According to the owner of our B&B, the housing market there and in England in general has really gone up, even with the global recession.

As for commercialized...you did see the King Arthur Bookstore and the Sword in the Stone Car Park, right? We took photographs to prove that there really were businesses with those names.

Still, though, the village itself isn't large enough to be spoiled, and the castle on its headland is too picturesque for anything to ruin.

did you happen to go to Polperro?

No, unfortunately not. We only had time to go to Tintagel and then St. Ives. :-( I would have loved to spend more time exploring those many public footpaths and walking on the coastal path (and sampling Cornish clotted cream, of course), but it was a short trip.