Beth Gellert

Prince Llewelyn had a favourite greyhound called Gellert, a gift from his father-in-law, King John. At home Gellert was gentle as a lamb, but out hunting he was as fierce as a lion.

One day Llewelyn set out to hunt and sounded his horn in front of his castle. All his other hounds came running, but Gellert did not. Llewelyn blew a louder blast and called Gellert by name, and still the greyhound did not come. In the end the prince could wait no longer and rode off without him. The hunting was poor that day, because Gellert, the fastest and bravest of his hounds, was missing.

Llewelyn rode home in a temper. As he reached the gate, out bounded Gellert to meet him, but when the hound came close, the prince was horrified to see blood dripping from his lips and teeth. Llewelyn recoiled, and the greyhound crouched at his feet, puzzled or frightened by the way his master greeted him.

Now Llewelyn had a little son, one year old, who often played with Gellert. A dreadful thought struck the prince, and he ran towards the child’s nursery. The closer he got, the more blood and disorder he found in the rooms. He burst into the nursery and found the cradle turned upside down and smeared with blood. More and more terrified, Llewelyn searched everywhere for his little boy, but found only signs of a fierce struggle in which much blood had been spilt.

At last he was certain that the dog had killed his child. “Monster, you have devoured my son!” he cried, and he drew his sword and drove it into Gellert’s side. The greyhound fell with a deep howl, his eyes still fixed on his master’s face.

As Gellert gave his dying howl, a baby’s cry answered from underneath the cradle. There Llewelyn found his son, unhurt and just waking from sleep. Next to him lay the body of a huge, lean wolf, torn and bloodied.

Too late, Llewelyn understood what had happened while he was gone. Gellert had stayed behind to guard the child, and had fought and killed the wolf that tried to kill the prince’s heir. All Llewelyn’s grief could not bring his faithful dog back to life. So he buried Gellert outside the castle walls, within sight of the great mountain Snowdon, where everyone who passed could see the grave, and he piled a great cairn of stones over it. And the tale links his name with Beth Gellert, interpreted here as the Grave of Gellert.

About this story

Joseph Jacobs included “Beth Gellert” in Celtic Fairy Tales, and his notes say he paraphrased a poem by W. R. Spencer, written in 1800. Spencer presented it as a local tradition near Snowdon. Jacobs questioned the account and argued that antiquarian writing helped attach the travelling story to this Welsh place.

Jacobs traces the tale of a man who rashly kills the faithful animal that saved his baby back to India, where it was still told in his day. His notes compare versions in the Fables of Bidpai and other collections. These are Jacobs’s historical arguments about the tale’s transmission; the story itself is not evidence that the described killing occurred or that its explanation of the place-name is correct.

Read the original: Joseph Jacobs, Celtic Fairy Tales (Project Gutenberg #7885)

Best for ages 9–12 with an adult — includes a threatened baby, a wolf’s death and the killing of a beloved dog; the loss is permanent.

Reading the story closely

The blood is real evidence, but it does not identify whom Gellert fought. Llewelyn turns one possible explanation into certainty before finding the child. The overturned cradle first seems to confirm a death and then conceals the living baby; the same object changes meaning when the missing evidence appears.

Pause before the prince draws his sword. List two explanations for each clue he sees, then choose the next observation that could distinguish them. After the ending, consider the cairn: it acknowledges Gellert, but cannot repair the harm. That difference gives the final memorial its sadness.

Think about it

• Why did Gellert not come when Llewelyn blew his horn?
• What made Llewelyn believe Gellert had harmed his son?
• What lesson do you think this story teaches?

More stories like this

• The Story of a Hiraman — a devoted pet who saves its master in a Bengali tale
• Connla and the Fairy Maiden — another tale from Jacobs’s Celtic Fairy Tales
• Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree — a Highland tale from the same collection