G'day,
It's interesting now to see how this thread developed. If I'd had all the "facts" and a copy of Spencer's poem to start with I'd never have written a song at all.

I suppose legends can be lost when someone rewrites them (although I don't expect "The Wolfhound" to supplant the Gelert legend) it's happened several times with this legend since it first appeared at least by about 540 AD in India.

Several months ago I acquired a copy of "Myths Of The Middle Ages" by Sabine Baring-Gould, edited by John Matthews. In this book B-G traces the Gelert legend to the 14th century 'Gesta Romanorum', which resulted in the tale being widely known throughout Europe (A Medi‘val urban myth?). In this version there is a knight named Folliculus, a greyhound and a serpent with the addition of a falcon which woke the greyhound when the serpent appeared. This in turn can be traced by a series of steps to the Indian tale mentioned above where the animals are an ichneumon and a black snake. This is recorded in the Sanskrit Pantschatantra. Further versions appear in Mongolia, China, Persia etc. etc. where the faithful animal varies amongst ichneumon, otter, weasel, cat or dog.

In fact it appears that the Gelert version was constructed by a man called David Pritchard who moved to Beddgelert in 1793 & adapted the tale to this new setting. With the help of parish clerk he erected the "grave" himself. He derived the name Gelert from the name of the village which in reality takes its name from the grave of an early Celtic warrior named Celert. It also seems that Pritchard told his version of the tale to Spencer who made the story more popular with his ballad version.

So, Rhiannon, if you are cross about the twisted story of your namesake please forgive me for "The Wolfhound". I don't think I've done much different from many other people over the centuries who have taken an incompletely remembered story and fleshed it out in their own way. I now have more knowledge of the background to the story but still would not see a need to change my version.

Cheers,
Alan