Welsh folklore is rich in stories and legends about mythical creatures, attractive stories for children and adults.
More than that, these tales are also filled with moral lessons that can be used to exemplify the importance of moral virtues. Learn about them in this article.
Welsh folklore as a tool to teach morality
The welsh folklore is a very interesting subject that often generates passion for experts. It is rich in mythical charactersand has a lot of stories that mix real historical events with magical beings. There are some well-known collections of tales that work as a sample of the foundations of Welsh tradition.
The Mabinogion is the most famous, it includes tales taken from medieval Welsh manuscripts. In it there are stories partly based on historical events but spiced up with myths and legends.
The welsh folklore is a tradition with a big influence from Celtic Britons since they inhabited a great part of Wales in times before the Roman conquest. The Celtics were a civilization very inclined to believe in magic and had an oral tradition that was based on imparting lessons through stories. Through their oral tales, they taught the new generations how to live properly. In consequence, you can find lessons about morals in almost every welsh tale, even when most of them are stories about fictional creatures and based on myths.
The profile of welsh folklore makes it a good tool to teach morality. Many essays about morality use welsh legends, myths and characters as topics and are centered on messages about moral issues. If you need help composing a morality essay, focused or not in Welsh folklore, you can look for writing services. These are also helpful if you just need a free example of what a good essay on morality could be.
Some interesting pieces of Welsh folklore
There are countless tales in the Welsh tradition, the majority of them can work as a sample of how to teach morality through tales. Here we tell you about some of them.
- The Four Branches of the Mabinogi. We’ve mentioned before Mabigonior’s collection of tales. It is the most famous compilation of stories from the Welsh folklore and there are many moral lessons hidden in it. The tales are about welsh kings and royal families from medieval times that face treason, deceive and love, and that are pushed into making decisions that prove their worth. It is a mix of themes like political issues, romances and magic. In it readers can find stories about justice, humility, charity and kindness, among other moral virtues. There are also stories of kings that act immorally and receive punishment for it, so it’s also useful to use as sample of what happens to immoral people.
- Arthurian cycle. If you need or want to write essays about morality then you will find that the stories about King Arthur are a mine of gold. The Arthurian cycle is focused on stories about King Arthur. It is part of the Matter of Britain, a big collection of legends mixed with reality about medieval times in Great Britain. That is why King Arthur is usually known as an English character, but the first appearances of this legendary king are part of ancient welsh stories, so it is safe to say that King Arthur is also part of the welsh folklore. There are many many tales regarding this character, and all of them are filled with lessons about loyalty, humility, justice, equality and many other moral virtues that this famous king and the knights of his round table had.
- The Old-Man and the Fairies. Fairies are only of the magical creatures that abound in welsh tradition and there are many tales about them. The story of the old-man and the Fairies is an example. It is the tale of an old man who falls asleep in a mountain where fairies lived. While sleeping, the fairies take him to their world, when the old man wakes up, the fairies show him their home and give him gold as a present, asking him to keep the secret of their existence and location. The old-man goes back to his house and his wife asks him about the gold. In the beginning, the old-man refuses to say anything about it, but the wife insisted so much that the old-man ended up telling everything about the fairies and their world. In consequence, all the gold the old-man had become cockle-shells. It is a story about loyalty and respect.
- The Story of Gelert. This is a tale about patience, prudence and loyalty. It tells the story of Prince Llewelyn, who’s best friend was the hound Gelert. One day, Llewelyn and his wife went hunting and left their baby child in the care of Gelert. When they came back, they found the cradle empty and Gelert’s muzzle stained with blood. Llewelyn, thinking that his faithful dog killed his son, killed Gelert with a hit of his sword. A moment after, he hears a soft cry and turns to find his son safe in the bed and the corpse of a wolf nearby. Too late he understood that the blood in Gelert muzzle was from fighting the wolf and saving his son.
