Prince Voel and Gwendolen
Prince Voel of Powys went to defend Llanymynech Hill from the invading Saxons, leaving his love, Princess Gwendolen, with his ring. Voel was strict with his men and warned them if they fell asleep o, went to n sentry duty he would stab them! Gwendolen grew impatient to see Voel so, disguised as a soldier, went to his camp. She gave a sentry the ring to take to Voel while she stood guard. She was tired and fell asleep. Voel was on his rounds and did not receive the ring. He mistook Gwendolen for a sleeping sentry and stabbed her to death.
Tywysog Foel a Gwendolen
Pan ymosododd y Sacsoniaid ar Gymru, aeth y Tywysog Foel o Bowys i amddiffyn ei wlad, gan adael ei gariaid, Gwendolen, a rhoi ei fodrwy iddi hi fel atgof. Yn y gwersyll, rhybuddiodd Foel ei filwyr rhag cysgu tra roeddent ar wyliadwriaeth. O’r, diwedd oedd Gwendolen ddim yn gallu aros hebddo fo, ac aeth i chwilio amdano fo, wedi’i gwisgo fel milwr. Pan gyrhaeddodd y gwersyll, rhoddodd ei modrwy i warchodwr i fynd â hi i Foel, tra roedd hi’n gwylio yn ei le. Aeth y gwarchodwr i chwilio am Foel. Yn anffodus, syrthiodd Gwendolen i gysgu yn hytrach na gwylio, a phan ddaeth Foel, meddyliodd o yr oedd hi’n filwr a oedd wedi cysgu ar ddyletswydd. Gwylltiodd o a thrywanodd Gwendolen. Dim ond wrth iddi hi farw hi yn freichiau y sylweddolodd pwy oedd hi.
And below is a video of a creative telling of the tale in English by a young storyteller.
More about the Montgomeryshire Folktales project
In 1947 the Montgomeryshire History Teachers Committee commissioned a book ‘The Enchanted Wood and Other Stories’ of site-specific tales passed down through Montgomeryshire communities for generations, rewritten as a local history resource for schools.
During 2019/20 Mythstories was funded by The Heritage Lottery Fund in Wales to turn the 1947 book into an on-line resource.
Mythstories commissioned storyteller Amy Douglas and visual artist Helen Kozich to work with young people in Newtown, Powys and help them re-interpret the tales for their peers. Videos of the young people telling the stories in many different ways are among the Montgomeryshire folktales on this website.
Storyteller Tamar Williams ran two day-long stagecraft workshops for young people at Theatr Hafren, Newtown.
Artists Ed Fisher and Imogen Phillips were commissioned to produce black-and-white illustrations of each location, for a series of postcards and use on this website.
Ashley Thomas edited the videos of the storytellings.
Many volunteers helped:
Members of Bangor University Storytelling Soc. produced the English précis of the stories for the postcard series
Fiona Collins, Alison Layland and Tamar Williams produced the Welsh précis of the stories for the postcard series.
Members of Llangollen’s Caffi Stori visited each of the sites, took photos and reported back to the artists on the locations.
And organisations leant their support:
Newtown Library and Newtown High School hosted a Newtown Young Storytellers Club and Penygloddfa Primary School, Caersws Primary School and Abermule Primary School hosted “Story in a Day” workshops.
Theatr Hafren hosted the stagecraft workshops and the final celebratory event
Newtown & Llanllwchaiarn Town Council funded storytelling performances to school children in Newtown to help promote the project.
Thank You All!
The full teachers resource is at https://mythstories.com/stories/montgomeryshire-folktales/
