If by any chance your travels take you through the beautiful mountains of north Wales, keep a look out for the quaint little village of Beddgelert. For a legend lies within that place that most Welsh people don’t even know about. As legends go this is has it all and it is a wonder Walt Disney himself has not come screaming in with his boots on to get hold of this little story.
A short walk from the village of Beddgelert lies a tomb stone, which marks the grave of a faithful hound that belonged to the medieval Welsh prince Llewellyn the Great, Prince of Gwynedd and the dog was said to have been a gift from King John of England.
The story is reproduced here exactly as it is written on the grave stone.
“In the 13 century Llewellyn, prince of Wales, had a place in Beddgelert.
One day he went hunting without Gelert, “The Faithful Hound” who was unaccountably absent.
On Llewellyn’s return the truant, smeared in blood, sprang to meet his master.
The prince alarmed hastened to find his son, and saw the infants cot empty, the bedclothes and floor covered in blood.
The frantic father plunged his sword into the hound’s side, thinking it had killed his heir.
The dogs dying yell was answered by a child’s cry.
Llewellyn searched and discovered his boy unharmed.
But nearby lay the body of a mighty wolf which Gelert had slain.
The prince filled with remorse is said to have never smiled again.
He buried Gelert here.”
Beddgelert means ‘Gelert’s grave’. Be sure to visit this beautiful part Wales as legend and folklore are in abundance. Set in the foothills of Snowdonia this is one landscape that, like Llewellyn’s sword, will take your breath away.
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Tags: beddgelert, Culture, gelert, llewellyn the great, News, snowdonia, Wales
Oooh, that story gets you right in the heart doesn’t it?
This is also a native American legend and probably has been cited in other cultures. Not that it didn’t happen, but it seems to have happened elsewhere, too. In the native American version (not sure of which group or tribe) the child is under a woven basket, but the father, thinking his dog has killed the baby, kills his dog.
Or maybe all the tales spring from this original Welsh version. One of my children wrote it up as a short story/essay for an English class, and just made it into her own version.
Comparing Islam and Christianity to Marxism or even atheism is a non-sequitur. Neither claims to be a revelation nor are their exclusionary and purport to be the word of god. Both Christianity and ISlam continue to wreak havoc based on tracts written within 2 millenia both of whcih require the willing suspension of rational thinking.
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