Note 19 — Chapter X · Difficulties of the Folklorist

Probably a study of the topography on the spot would result in the identification of more names similarly significant; but I will call attention to only one of them, namely Beđgelert or, as it is locally pronounced, Bethgelart, though the older spellings of the name appear to be Beth Kellarth and Beth Kelert. Those who are acquainted with the story, as told there, of the man who rashly killed his hound might think that Beđgelert, ‘Gelert or Kelert’s Grave,’ refers to the hound; but there is a complete lack of evidence to show this widely known story to have been associated with the neighbourhood by antiquity19; and the compiler of the notes and pedigrees known as Boneđ y Saint was probably right in treating Kelert as the name of an ancient saint: see the Myvyr. Arch., ii. 36. In any case, Kelert or Gelert with its rt cannot be a genuine Welsh name: the older spellings seem to indicate two pronunciations—a Goidelic one, Kelert, and a Welsh one, Kelarth or Keỻarth, which has not survived. The documents, however, in which the name occurs require to be carefully examined for the readings which they supply.