Myths and Legends

Gelert. Once there was a prince named Llywellyn. He had a dog called Gelert.He trusted him with his life. Gelert was a brilliant hunting dog and a faithful companion to Llywellyn.One day Llywellyn's wife had a baby boy. Llywellyn was very fond of hunting so one afternoon he arranged a meet.Llywellyn had to leave his new born child , so insted of a babysitter he chose his faithfull dog,Gelert to look after the baby. So off Llywellyn went with his dog in charge of his child. Llywellyn had gone for at least an hour when Gelert and the baby had an unexpected visitor , a wolf from the woods tore into the house and into the room were the baby was lying.Gelert quickly took the baby in it's mouth and placed him on the floor with a blanket over him so that he could fight off the wolf. Llywellyn returned to find the baby missing and Gelert coverd in blood , Llywellyn's thoughts ran wild and assumed that Gelert had killed the baby. With that Llywellyn thrusted his sword into Gelert and killed him. But as Gelert fell with a thud to the ground he heard his son cry.He lifted the blanket to find the baby safe and well with not a scratch on his body. Llywellyn then realised his mistake as he saw the wolf's dead body by the cot. Llywellyn regreted his actions and arranged for Gelert to have a buriel service and a grave stone with his name and achievments carved upon it. The grave stone is there to this day as a tourist attraction to Wales in a small village called "Bedd Gelert " which in English translates to Gelert's grave. By Gemma ,Vicky and Claire.
MYTHS AND LEGENDS Wales has hundreds of different myths and legends many of them hundreds, even thousands of years old. A very famous one is the story of Cantre'r Gwaelod. The story was that there was land instead of sea in what is now called Cardigan Bay. This land was a country ruled by a king called Gwyddno Garanhir. It was a very pretty country and hundreds of people lived there. But the land was below sea level so the only way that they could keep the sea from flooding the country was with a huge stone wall. The person in charge of looking after the wall was the Prince Seithenin. His job was to make sure that there was always at least two watchmen in the towers on the wall and more at high tide or when there was a storm. The wathmen were there to watch for holes in the great sea wall. Somtimes holes would appear, but it was not a problem. All they had to do was ring a big bell in the main tower and people would come running up from the villages to repair them. One day the king decided to have a big party and everyone was to be invited. Seithenyn was also invited and so he put two watchmen on the tower. It was a good party and everybody got very drunk. Meanwhile the two watchmen that were left on the tower were getting worried because the next set who were meant to take over from them hadn't arrived.So Gwyn ap Llywarch,one of the watchmen, sent the other man to find out what was happening. After a few hours Gwyn started to get nervous. It was getting quite dark, no-one had come to relieve him yet and a storm was brewing.The storm became much worse and a hole appeard in the wall. Gwyn rushed to the main tower and rang the bell as loudly as he could, but no help came. So he jumped on his horse and rode to the castle. When he got there he found everybody drunk and sleeping. He saw Seithenyn and tried to wake him, but it was no good. He couldn't wake anyone else either, they had all eaten and drunk too much. Then Gwyn noticed that the king's daughter wasn't in the hall. He ran upstairs and found the princess in her room. They ran down to the stables and jumped onto Gwyn's horse. They rode away accross the border and onto the high ground. There they stood and watched the sea wall burst and the country flood. Everybody else was killed. Gwyn and the princess married and lived on the shore of the bay where once Cantre'r Gwaelod had been. It is said that on a quiet day, when the bay is calm, you can still hear the bells of the watchtower in Cantre'r Gwaelod ringing under the sea.

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