The Amazing Adventures of Archibald Esq.
Gelert the Legendary Welsh Hound
Gelert is the name of a legendary dog associated with the village of Beddgelert (Welsh: Gelert’s Grave) in North Wales.
This Welsh legend has a very strong resemblance to the tale of Saint Guinefort – a legendary French dog who achieved ’sainthood’ and veneration of the people of Brittany — awoof!
Isaac Taylor, author of Words and Places, asserted that the village of Beddgelert has taken its name from an early saint named Kilart or Celert, rather than from the dog.
The existence of the “grave” mound is ascribed to the activities of a late eighteenth-century landlord of the Goat Hotel in Beddgelert, who connected the legend to the village in order to encourage tourism and to boost his own takings.
The story of Gelert is a variation on the well-worn “Faithful Hound” folktale motif. In this case the hound is alleged to have belonged to Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Gwynedd (c. 1173 – 1240), and to have been a gift from King John of England.
In the story, Llywelyn returns from hunting to find his baby’s cradle overturned, the baby missing and the dog with blood around its mouth. Imagining that it has savaged the child, he drew his sword and killed his faithful hound, which let out a final dying yelp.
The dog’s yelp woke the baby. When Llywelyn hears the cries of the baby and finds it unharmed under the cradle, he takes a better look about, only to find, under the cradle, the body of a dead wolf which had attacked the child and been killed by Gelert.
The story goes that after that day Llywelyn never spoke again. Overcome with remorse, he buried his hound with great ceremony, yet he still could hear the dying yell.
This story is the basis for a poem by William Robert Spencer written around 1800 and is also recorded by George Borrow in his Wild Wales — who noted in passing that the legend is well-known. The story is also retold in Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, which details versions of the same story from other cultures; and by The Nuttall Encyclopaedia, under the anglicised spellings “Gellert” and “Killhart”.
William Robert Spencer (1769 - 1834) was an Oxford university educated poet, who wrote graceful vers de société, and is best remembered by his well-known Ballad of Gelert. After a life of extravagance he died in poverty in Paris.
Despite many literary sources, and despite the presence of a raised mound in the village called Gelert’s Grave, there is absolutely no evidence for Gelert’s ‘historical’ existence. That he exists in the human imaginary is, however, without doubt!
Many arguments have taken place about which breed Gelert was. Some favour the Irish wolfhound as a wolf is the animal the hound killed, but others suggest it was a Scottish deerhound, which was the most popular choice of hound for royalty of that era.
Whatever the breed, Gelert was no doubt brave and faithful!
Awoof!
Archibald
Posted 12 Dec 07
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