Birth of Beddgelert

To offer some relief to the slightly dense material of yesterday, I take us to a small village I recently stumbled upon in North Wales. Beddgelert is surrounded by the peaks of Snowdonia National Park, in the valley of the confluence of the River Glaslyn and River Colwyn. 

Despite the beauty of the village, I am writing to tell the story behind the birth of the very name Beddgelert. At this point I prompt a slight reality check, in that the following ‘story’ is true in the eyes of legend, rather than proven fact. Nonetheless, you will see it is still set in stone.

In the village lies the grave of Gelert, who was the loyal hound of Welsh Prince Llewelyn the Great, marked by a stone monument. The story written on the tombstone reads as following:

In the 13^th century Llewelyn, prince of North Wales, had a palace at Beddgelert. One day he went hunting without Gelert, ‘The Faithful Hound’, who was unaccountably absent.

On Llewelyn’s return the truant, stained and smeared with blood, joyfully sprang to meet his master. The prince alarmed hastened to find his son, and saw the infant’s cot empty, the bedclothes and floor covered with blood.

The frantic father plunged his sword into the hound’s side, thinking it had killed his heir. The dog’s dying yell was answered by a child’s cry.

 Llewelyn 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 never to have smiled again. He buried Gelert here.

And so, as the hound rests on his final bed, the village is appropriately name, Beddgelert.