NAME:	Gelert
SPECIES:	Wolfhound
DATE:	Early 1200s
LOCATION:	Beddgelert, Wales
SITUATION:	Baby attacked by a marauding wolf
WHO WAS SAVED:	Prince Llywelyn’s infant son
LEGACY:	Treasured Welsh fable of canine devotion, ongoing inspiration for Hollywood movies

In Wales, the best-loved and most famous animal rescue story is that of Gelert the wolfhound. The tale goes like this:

Early in the thirteenth century, Prince Llywelyn of North Wales had a palace in the town of Beddgelert. Prince Llywelyn was extremely fond of hunting, and he often led hunting parties through the countryside accompanied by his favorite dog, Gelert.

One day, Llywelyn sounded the horn for a hunt, and all his hunting dogs came running except for one, his faithful wolfhound. Puzzled and disappointed by Gelert’s strange absence, Prince Llywelyn carried on with the hunt, anyway—accompanied by his wife, and leaving his infant son in the care of a nursemaid.

Later that day, the hunting party returned, and Prince Llywelyn and his wife were greeted by Gelert, who bounded to meet them with joyful strides. Yet as he drew closer, they saw that the wolfhound’s muzzle was smeared and dripping with blood.

Horrified, the prince and his wife rushed to the nursery. There, they found the aftermath of a violent struggle: Their baby’s empty cradle was overturned, and blood-covered sheets and clothes were strewn everywhere.

Mad with grief, and thinking that Gelert had viciously killed his son and heir, the prince immediately drove his sword into Gelert’s side, piercing his heart. Gelert howled in agony. Yet as his cries died away, another cry arose.

Hidden beneath the cradle under the bloody sheets, Llywelyn’s son was alive! And next to the child, also hidden, lay the dead body of an enormous wolf.

Llywelyn immediately realized the truth: His ever-faithful Gelert had saved his son from this marauding predator. The innocent dog had raced to meet them out of well-earned pride.

Overcome with remorse, Llywelyn buried Gelert beneath a mighty cairn of stones and marked his grave so that all would remember Gelert’s bravery and the tragic lesson of that day. Afterward, it was said Prince Llywelyn never smiled again.

TALES OF THE “FAITHFUL HOUND”
Prince Llywelyn was a real person, but Gelert’s story is a fake. It is considered a variation of a popular folktale known as the “Faithful Hound” that appears in many cultures.

Apparently, in a bid to drum up tourism, an eighteenth-century innkeeper, David Pritchard, adapted the folktale to fit the town in which he lived, Beddgelert (which means “Gelert’s grave”). Pritchard invented the name Gelert for the dog and added Prince Llywelyn to imbue the story with some local authenticity. It worked quite well. Ever since, English poets and writers have immortalized Gelert, turning him into a Welsh icon, and even today, tourists seek out the sleepy Wales village to visit Gelert’s supposed burial mound, which is marked by a plaque telling his story.

The oldest version of the “Faithful Hound” folktale likely comes from India. In the Panchatantra, a compilation of animal fables from the third to fifth centuries, there’s the story of the mongoose and the black snake. In this rendition, a husband and wife leave their baby in the care of a mongoose, who kills a predatory black snake while they’re away. When they return to their bloody home, they make the same error as Prince Llywelyn: In their grief, they kill the mongoose, only to discover too late the dead snake and their safe child.

Other versions—involving different combinations of animals—hail from China, Malaysia, Egypt, and Germany. In the United States, Hollywood has used this evocative scenario several times: In the animated movie Lady and the Tramp (1955), Tramp is at one point falsely accused of attacking the baby. The dog is saved from death only when Lady reveals a dead rat in the bloody nursery.

The movie Babe (1995) also includes a moment when Babe the pig is mistaken for a sheep killer. The farmer takes Babe’s bloody snout as evidence that Babe murdered the sheep, when Babe actually fought off the real attackers—a pack of feral dogs. The farmer takes Babe to the shed to kill him, but—perhaps sensing the lesson of Gelert that rash acts of grief only lead to irrevocable, tragic consequences—the farmer has a change of heart and lets the faithful pig go.