Llewelyn and Gelert
The story of Llewelyn and Gelert, a Welsh Legend also known as ‘Beddgelert’ – the town where the story is set, is great for exploring feelings. Within this short tale we find love, anger, joy, regret and grief. It speaks of oh-so-human fallibility and the ease with which we jump to conclusions. This story is ideal for ‘Feelings are Funny Things’ as it adaptable for different ages and illustrates how strong emotions such as anger give an ‘impulse to act’ which is the function of all emotions.
Once, everyone knew the name of Llewelyn the Great – A Prince of Gwynedd, A Prince of Wales, some say the last true Prince of Wales. And everyone knew of Llewelyn’s faithful dog, Gelert – Always with him in battle, and in the hunt but also in the times of peace. Gelert was a wolfhound, with a sleek black coat, who was devoted to his master – he would give his own life to protect him and Llewelyn loved him in return.
Now Llewellyn lived in a castle with his wife, Gwendoline, and their new born baby boy – an heir. Their home was near a small village in North Wales. One day, Llewelyn was called away on the business of a King– he would be a way for a day and a night. Gwendoline was not well. He usually would not be separated from Gelert but today he decided he would leave Gelert to guard the castle, and most importantly his wife and child. He left, promising he would be back as soon he could.
But in the middle of the night, a wolf sneaked into the castle. He climbed up the stairs to the baby’s bedchamber. But Gelert awoke, he could smell the wolf even though it was pitch black and he could not see him. He dived, they fought, snapping at each other. The wolf knocked the baby’s cradle and the baby started to cry. The wolf distracted stopped Gelert lunged and he bit deep into the neck of the wolf. The wolf, bleeding profusely, sloped off trying to get away. Gelert went to the baby, he pulled a blanket over the baby with his teeth and settled down next to him. The fresh blood staining the white sheets. The baby calmed and quickly fell back asleep against the warmth of Gelert and the dog, exhausted from the fight fell asleep also.
The next morning Gelert, his ears sharp even when asleep, woke up when his master returned home early next morning. He ran down the stairs and jumped up with joy when he saw his master. Llewellyn only saw the blood on Gelert’s fur. His first thought was of his child and he rushed to the baby’s room. The room was in disarray, the cot was lay broken on the floor, the curtains pulled to the ground, chairs turned over. He didn’t see the baby. Instead he knew, or thought he knew, what happened – His dog, his beautiful dog, had attacked and killed his own son. He pulled his sword, faster than he had ever done so and, as he looked into his dog’s loving eyes, thrust the sword into the dog, piercing his heart as the steel blade slid through.
Gelert let out a howl and died before Llewelyn. As the sound of the howl died, then Llewelyn heard the sound of a baby’s cry from behind the fallen cot. Gwendoline rushed in, and pulled the sheet back and there was his child – alive and unharmed. She picked the child up but Llewelyn was now less certain of what had happened. He searched the house and found, in a dark alcove, the wolf lying dead, his throat ripped open.
Now he knew what had happened. A wolf had entered the castle and was about to attack the child but Gelert had protected his baby. And now, Llewelyn, in his rage, had killed his most trusted and loyal animal. He fell to his knees and began to cry, unable to speak and tears running down his face. His mind full of both relief that his son was alive and grief and guilt for the killing of the dog. Some say that Llewelyn never smiled again after that day and that he carried that sadness until his last day.
Llewelyn never forgot Gelert. He ordered a grave to be built near the castle with a stone engraved telling the story of how he died. In time, the village grew into a town and became known as Beddgelert, meaning the grave of Gelert. Llewelyn would go to the grave each night and look up the stars. He believed he could see Gelert in the heavens. The grave is still there and so to is the pattern of the stars that Llewelyn saw as Gelert. Look to Sirius, the dog star in the constellation of Canis Major and maybe you too will see it.
The story, unfortunately, is not true. Llewelyn lived in the 13th century but the grave of Gelert was apparently built by a local hotel keeper in the 18th Century to generate some interest in the village. The story itself is an old one and there are versions from Asia and Europe. This raises the question of the ‘truth’ of the story. And though the facts of the story may not be true, it has a psychological truth – of jumping to conclusions and acting in anger.
All emotions give ‘an impulse to act’ in some way and exploring what any emotion makes you ‘want to do’ is always useful. But we develop our emotional intelligence (or literacy) by considering our choices before action – unless you are being stalked by a tiger – in which case, get out of there. My understanding of emotional literacy is that by building the spaces that exists between emotion and behaviour we increase our ability to reflect and act wisely (Killick, 2006). This, of course, riffs of the famous quote by Viktor Frankl; ‘Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.’ That space, also known as the ‘relational space’ helps one see emotions as a guide, or source of information, to acting wisely beyond the impulsive response. Anger, like fear, triggers the fight-or-flight response with an emphasis on the fight aspect. It is a powerful emotion that helps us to stand up for ourselves, to be treated fairly. It lies at the heart of justice. But anger begets anger, it escalates, it can intimidate others. It is the emotion that most people dmits to struggling to manage well. The wisdom traditions, including many stories, offer useful guidance with such proverbs as ‘postpone anger until tomorrow’ and ‘the greatest remedy for anger is delay’ – So often, we need time to think.
Killick, Steve (2006) Emotional Literacy at the Heart of the School Ethos. Sage.
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