Claddwyd Cylart celfydd (ymlyniad)
Ymlaneau Efionydd
Parod giuio i’w gynydd
Parai’r dydd yr heliai Hydd;
which he Englishes thus:
The remains of famed Cylart, so faithful and good,
The bounds of the cantred conceal;
Whenever the doe or the stag he pursued
His master was sure of a meal.
No reference was made in the first edition to the Gellert legend, but in the second edition of 1794, p. 75, a note was added telling the legend, “There is a general tradition in North Wales that a wolf had entered the house of Prince Llewellyn. Soon after the Prince returned home, and, going into the nursery, he met his dog
Bedd Cilhart
Agatha
Anno Domini
Musical Relicks
, s.v., “Bedd Celert,” published in 1811, the date of publication of Mr. Spencer’s
The Grave of Celert
englyn
englyn
the
banal
It remains only to explain why Jones connected the legend with Llewelyn. Llewelyn had local connection with Bedd Gellert, which was the seat of an Augustinian abbey, one of the oldest in Wales. An inspeximus of Edward I. given in Dugdale,
l.c.
rt
But whether Kellarth, Kelert, Cylart, Gelert or Gellert ever existed and ran a hart from Carnarvon to Bedd Gellert or no, there can be little doubt after the preceding that he was not the original hero of the fable of “the man that slew his greyhound,” which came to Wales from Buddhistic India through channels which are perfectly traceable. It was Edward Jones who first raised him to that proud position, and William Spencer who securely installed him there, probably for all time. The legend is now firmly established at Bedd Gellert. There is said to be an ancient air, “Bedd Gelert,” “as sung by the Ancient Britons"; it is given in a pamphlet published at Carnarvon in the “fifties,” entitled
. The air is from R. Roberts’ “Collection of Welsh Airs,” but what connection it has with the legend I have been unable to ascertain. This is probably another case of adapting one tradition to another. It is almost impossible to distinguish palaeozoic and cainozoic strata in oral tradition. According to Murray’s
XXII. STORY OF IVAN.
Blackwood’s Magazine
, though harmless enough in itself.
Hunt,
Merugud Uilix maiec Leirtis
Gesta Romanorum
Gesta
Gesta, ed. Swan and Hooper, note 9).
XXIII. ANDREW COFFEY.
Legend. Fict.
XXIV. BATTLE OF BIRDS.
Pop. Tales, W. Highlands
Tales
thou
you’s
Celtic Magazine
Revue Celtique
XXV. BREWERY OF EGGSHELLS.
XXVI. LAD WITH THE GOAT SKIN.
cf.
Holy Grail
cf.
Three Wishes
The Fians, 73, and notes, 283). Red-haired men in Ireland and elsewhere are always rogues (see Mr. Nutt’s references, MacInnes’ Tales, 477; to which add the case in “Lough Neagh,” Yeats, Irish Folk-Tales, p. 210).