There have been many tales told down through the ages of dogs, usually black or darkly coloured, haunting ancient places – often on ancient pathways – as harbingers of death. But it’s another kind of dog, a greyhound, or more probably a Grey Hound (or wolf?) that concerns us today.
There are several dolmens across Wales, remnants of ancient burial chambers, which are known by names which roughly translate to the “Lair of the Grey Hound”, the “Grey Bitch’s Lair” or other variants along the same lines.
N. Wales: Lletty’r Filiast on the Great Orme. © Alan S.
Lletty’r Filiast on the Great Orme at Llandudno, Gwal-y-Filiast (St Lythans) near Barry, Twlc y Filiast at Llanglydwen, Carmarthenshire and Gwal-y-Filiast (Dolwilym) at Narberth in Pembrokeshire are all examples of these names.
S. Wales: Gwal-y-Filiast at St Lythans. © Alan S.
But where do these names originate?
The dog is the oldest domestic animal, traceable to the paleolithic, since when dogs have enjoyed a peculiarly close relationship with humans, sharing their hearths at night and guarding the home, working during the day as sheepdogs or hunters. This close symbiotic relationship with people is reflected in the early literature where dogs seem to have clear connections with the Otherworld.
Greyhounds are specifically mentioned in the early Welsh literature: they formed some of the many gifts presented to Pwyll by Arawn, lord of the Otherworld, in the First Branch of the Mabinogi. Two greyhounds accompany Culhwch, when he sets out in all his splendour to visit his cousin Arthur, in ‘Culhwch and Olwen.’
(quotes taken from Bob Trubshaw: “Black Dogs, Guardians of the corpse ways”)
There are folk tales in Ireland of heroes which show evidence of the importance of hounds in Celtic culture. One of the most popular Irish heroes, Fionn MacCumhal, had an aunt, (or possibly sister?) Tuiren, who was transformed in the Otherworld to a hound bitch and gave birth to pups. Her sons subsequently remained in that form, serving as loyal companions to their cousin.
One has to wonder if these names survive as a racial memory of some kind of ancient ‘Greyfriars Bobby‘ hunting dog, hanging around it’s master’s final resting place, or whether the burial chambers (which would have contained possibly dismembered body parts) attracted wild animals, including wolves, looking for a possibly easy meal? Or is it simply that the structures now resemble what we might consider “kennels”, somewhere for the beasts to settle down for the night, sheltered from the worst of the weather?
A modern dog kennel.
If any linguists/etymologists can ‘shed’ any light (sorry!), we’d be interested to hear from you in the comments.
The Heritage Journal 
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02/09/2013 at 10:39
Daryl K
I visit many Cathedral’s and there is always some carving of a recumbent knight or noble person in death and carved by their feet there is often their dog, such was the relationship and regard for this persons ‘special’ friend. The word ‘Kennel’ originates from the old French ‘Chenil’. Not sure about Neolithic Kennels but its a nice bit of fantasy for the mind.
02/09/2013 at 11:53
Maju
In Brythonic mythology (Welsh one especially but also many English local legends) dogs are associated with death and the netherworld (also in some cases in Germanic, Finnic and Greek legends, see for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellhound). I would imagine that quite naturally that’s the origin of such names.
Here in the Basque Country not a single megalith bears such name because here dogs have no such association. Instead they are usually related to other magical beings such as sorginak (witches, probably priestesses of the old religion), jentilak (stone-throwing giants, probably a representation of pre-Christian Basques), mairuak (another type of beings, almost invariably associated to Iron Age stone rings, maybe a distinct people once upon a time) or even in some cases more recent characters like Roldan or the Devil.
These differences may be in part because when Celts took over Britain, probably in the La Téne period, many of the old beliefs, which were largely chthonic, were almost literally “buried” in the mounds where their ancient representatives rested, becoming a less important, secondary part of the remixed Celtic mythology, a bit like what happened to Japanese shinto deities under Buddhism or to the world of titans in Greek mythology. And the same that in Greek mythology Hades and his dog took over the netherworld, leaving only secondary roles to ancient deities like Caronte or Persephone, in Britain (England and Wales) hellhounds (surely Indoeuropean in origin: quite widespread even if not universally IE) took over those chthonic and death-specific spots which are the dolmens.
Maybe there’s also an intuitive association with kennels as well, of course, much as here they are instictivally associated with huts (same concept, different resident).
06/09/2013 at 10:43
Archer
I am very interested in the folklore connected with megalithic sites. In my novel, STONE LORD, which takes place in the early bronze age (Wessex I), I called the Cuckoo Stone at Woodhenge, the Khu Stone…the Stone of Hounds (from proto-celtic Ku). I chose this name because excavations have shown a later Romano-British dog-shrine near to the fallen stone, and because of similar sounding word elements (although the Cuckoo bird itself is known as a bird of Midsummer, which also have some relevance.)
Maju’s post is very informative about Basque myth (which is fascinating)…I note that many British sites also feature legends of stone-throwing giants, as well at that wily old devil (and often King Arthur). Another common folkloric motif is dancers and pipers; possibly a folk memory of something that actually went on here? At at least one barrow I know of the ground surface was packed solid as if people had danced or processed around it for considerable time.
The only thing I would argue against is the source of our hounds/black dogs definitely beings from ‘celts’…as there really is no archaeological evidence that there were huge invasions of central European celts into Britain and Ireland…even the Yorkshire tribes who with their chariot burials resembled the French Arras culture have been found by isotope testing to be local people with cultural connections more than geographic ones. Neolithic dog skeletons have been found at places like Durrington Walls; and in at least once instance the dog was rather old, past its working life, but seemed to have been kept on as a pet, as it was well fed and glutted with the bones its had been chewing! (So the British love of dogs may be a rather ancient thing, lol.)
06/09/2013 at 13:21
Maju
I do not mean to imply large demographic movements re. the Celtic invasions of the La Tène period but I would imagine that more as an aristocratic conquest, with whatever newly formed alliances, etc. I don’t really expect to see too radical demic movements in the Metal Ages, but rather aristocratic conquests involving only a minority. The conquest must have implied some important “creolization” of the Celtic elites because it seems that they incorporated some (or even many) of the pre-existent beliefs and that even the very notion of druids was incorporated from the pre-existant British priesthood (Iberian Celts who did not have the La Tène phase and were cut from the continent c. 500 BCE never had druidism of any sort, some even were said to be “atheist”).
Overall La Tène culture is pretty well documented to spread from Central Europe and most of its destination areas do not have pre-existant influences from that same core area. They had a quite advanced quasi-civilization, at least in the mainland, that, according to Venceslas Kruta, was later their doom, as the “less advanced” Germanics only had to destroy their towns to effectively gain control of the territory (this Germanic expansion triggered Roman intervention in turn).
As for dog/hellhound mythology, all I can say is that it does seem Indoeuropean rather than pre-IE, although the commonality of such references is scattered enough to prompt a question mark or two. It is certainly Brythonic rather than generically Celtic (Gaels do not seem to have such myths), being also present among some Nordic peoples (Finno-Scandia) and among Greeks (if we accept Cerberus as such).
Other aspects of British chthonic mythology, for what I have been able to exchange with knowledgeable people on the matter, seem sometimes akin to Basque ones. For example I have been informed repeatedly that originally the faerie did not have any wings nor air affinity, being similar to Basque iratxoak (imps, lit. “little ferns”). But of course there must be differences as well. Whatever the case, there was a community of macro-culture (religion or whatever) for many millennia stretching from Iberia to the British Islands (and further away at some times), not just in the Megalithic period but also later in the Atlantic Bronze Age. Then came the Celts (to Iberia first) and the cultural area became dissolved. Often people tend to associate some shared cultural elements like bagpipes or stone-lifting with Celts but most likely they pre-date these by a lot, being rather from the Megalithic period and/or the Bronze Age.
27/09/2013 at 13:20
Dawn
Gwal y Filiast is the cromlech near Llanglydwen in Carmarthenshire… not Narberth 🙂
27/09/2013 at 13:35
Alan S.
It seems to be a common name. A search on The Modern Antiquarian web site shows at least three burial chambers with that name: http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/search/site_names/Filiast/ including the one at Narberth 🙂
20/02/2016 at 21:07
Rosie Scribblah
I visited Twlc Y Filiast a few days ago and wondered where the name came from. Thanks for this, it’s very interesting.