In article <[log in to unmask]>,
Roger Smith  <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>A poser for all experts of Welsh Legends. Can anyone provide us with
>some information on the legend of Gelert?
>
>Many thanks
>Roger Smith

I had suspected that the Gelert story was a Victorian invention, but
it is older, perhaps much older. I checked in some antiquarian books
about Wales which I had inherited from my mother and found:

"A Tour round North Wales, performed during the Summer of 1798" by the
Rev. W. Bingley. Published 1800.

In Vol I, pp 360-361 Bingley is describing a visit to the village of
Beddgelert (4 miles almost due S of the summit of Snowdon, 13 miles by
road from Caernarfon):

    "There is a tradition extant, that Llewelyn the Great, had a house
in Beddgelert, and that being once from home, a wolf, during his
absence, had entered it. Upon returning, his grey-hound, called
Kill-hart, came out to meet him, wagging his tail, but covered over
with blood; the prince, alarmed at the fight, ran into the nursery,
and found the cradle, in which his child had lain, overturned, and the
ground flowing with blood: imagining that the grey-hound had killed
it, he immediately drew his sword and slew him; but upon turning up
the cradle, he found the child alive, and the wolf dead. This so
affected the prince, that he erected a tomb over his faithful dog's
grave, where afterwards the parish church was built, and called, from
the incident, _Bedd Cilhart_, or the grave of Kill-hart. From this was
also derived a very common Welsh proverb: 'I repent as much as the man
who slew his greyhound'.

    "This celebrated dog had been a present to Llewelyn from his
father-in-law, King John, about the year 1205..."
                -----------------------------

The latter statement surprises me. I know nothing of Welsh royal
genealogy, but it seems unlikely that a Welsh prince would be related,
even by marriage, to an English Plantagenet.

I think that later versions of this legend describe the dog as a wolf-
hound. Otherwise, the modern story is identical to that written by
Bingley in the late 18C.

I have an 1810 edition of the better-known "Tours in Wales" by Thomas
Pennant, and although he describes a visit to _Bedd Kelert_ he does
not seem to mention the Gelert legend. I think Pennant made his tours
a few years before Bingley: c. 1778 - 1781?

Hope this helps.

Martin H. Evans - entirely Welsh ancestry, but tone-deaf, can't sing
                  and can't speak the language :-(