Merres and Ella Cornwall

Merres and Ella Cornwall were a pair of self-styled "battling sorcerers" (though they had no magic) who lived in the early Second Age. Inspired by the romanticisim of the Golden Age, they were explorers and archaeologists who made expeditions to visit remote sites and recover lost treasures on the Greater Continent. Though reviled by mainstream academics, they were beloved by the public and remained popular figures in in historical fiction for centuries.

Methods and Style

The Cornwalls regarded themselves first as wanderers and explorers. While they were prolific writers and documentary film makers, they often boasted that these exploits were simply a way to finance their lifestyle. Later historians were divided on the validity of this statement, as the pair did live quite well. But the lion's share of their income was spent on high-tech equipment and financing their journeys.

The Cornwalls mostly explored the Nara River basin, the Summer Lowlands, and the great expanses on the north-eastern quadrant. Regions then sparsely or even completely unpopulated. While they made a few early expeditions on foot or by boat, they primarily used ruggedized vehicles or light aircraft. Perhaps most famous is their tendency to go unaccompanied, mastering whatever skills were required to make long, dangerous treks alone. While dangerous, it gave the pair a great deal of mystique.

Their most famous

Controversies

While the Cornwalls did indeed visit and map several remote sites, and brought back minor artifacts of considerable significance, the bulk of their most important 'finds' were obvious and poor-quality forgeries, and most of the well-known artifacts they recovered were known by serious scholars as myth. The Horn of Agraya, one of their most publicized discoveries, was a well-known historical fraud, debunked over a century earlier. When questioned, Merres replied, that "As nothing of historical importance hinges on the validity of the artifact, not much time need to be expended on considering this matter further. We had a grand adventure, we sought to delight the senses and inflame the imagination, and that is all that need be said about that.".