Below you will find several versions of corgi legends...a delightful part of what makes the Pembroke Welsh Corgi so enchanting!  Who could resist a dog designed by faeries?   


     It all begins with the faerie folk. They lived in the woodlands of Wales and spent a happy time wandering the forests. Though their delicate wings could not take them very fast, and they became lazy about traveling long distance, so they decided to create a fast steed upon which they could ride.  So after much hard work and deep thinking, they came upon a perfect solution, the dwarf dog. The dwarf dog had the physical characteristics of a fox, but not it's sly personality, for later the faerie folk found out that this dog could not only travel by fast speed, but was also a loyal, and pleasant creature. When the faeries weren't riding their dwarf dogs, they would send them among the children to play, and even watch over them. 
     One day while riding upon their dwarf dogs, the Queen and the King of the Faeries spotted mortal humans, doing hard and rough work just to keep themselves and their families alive, for the people they spotted were poor farm hands, working on the land. Distracted by this, the King of the Faeries fell off his steed, and the Queen rushed off hers to save him. The dwarf dogs, which were actually puppies,  not knowing that the royalty had fallen, ran off, thinking everything was fine. By the time the Queen had revived her fallen husband, the puppies were out of sight, and the king and queen had not the speed to catch up to them. "What shall we do?  Our dwarf dogs will certainly get lost among the land. We must organize a search at once!" Announced the king. But the Queen comforted him, saying, "You must not worry. We have lost but two dwarf dogs, which we only used for our pleasure, but these dogs will soon be lost no longer, for they will be found by mortals more needing of them than us."
      After awhile the pups became lost, and wandered into a hollow. Not having a care in the world, the working dogs started to play together, and had a delightful time. They did not even notice two poor mortal children watching them play. After awhile of watching, the children picked them up, and carried them home, happy with what they found. When the farmer men came home and saw the dwarf dogs the children found, they smiled. One man explained to the children that these were gifts given to them by the faeries.  The people did not know a proper name for these creatures, so they called them Corgis, the ancient Welsh word for dwarf dogs. The Corgis worked on the farm land with such means, herding cows and the like, that they became loved and cherished among the folk of Wales, and hundreds of years later loved by the world. Do you doubt this tale?  Just look on our backs, and you'll see the faerie saddle from which the Woodland Faeries rode.

The Corgi Legend
By Anne Biddlecombe

Would you know where corgis came from?
How they came to live with mortals?
On the mountains of the Welsh-land
In its green and pleasant valleys,
Lived the peasant folk of old times,
Lived our fathers and grandfathers;
And they toiled and laboured greatly
With their cattle and their ploughing,
That their women might have plenty.
And their children journeyed daily
With the kine upon the mountain,
Seeing that they did not wander,
Did not come to any mischief,
While their fathers ploughed the valley
And their mothers made the cheeses.

'Til one day they found two puppies,
Found them playing in a hollow,
Playing like a pair of fox-cubs.
Burnished gold their coat and colour,
Shining like a piece of satin -
Short and straight and thick their fore-legs,
And their heads like a fox's.
But their eyes were kind and gentle;
Long of body these dwarf-dogs
And without a tail behind them.

Now the children stayed all day there,
And they learned to love the dwarf-dogs,
Shared their bread and water with them,
Took them home with them even.
Made a cosy basket for them,
Made them welcome in the kitchen,
Made them welcome in the homestead.

When the men came home at sunset,
Saw them lying in the basket,
Heard the tale the children told them,
How they found them on the mountain,
Found them playing in the hollow -
They were filled with joy and wonder
And said it was a fairy present,
Was a present from the wee folk,
For their fathers told a legend
How the fairies kept some dwarf-dogs.
Called them Corgis - Fairy heelers:
Made them work the fairy cattle,
Made them pull the fairy coaches,
Made them steeds for fairy riders,
Made them fairy children's playmates;
Kept them hidden in the mountains,
Kept them hidden in the mountains shadow,
Lest the eye of mortal see one.

Now the Corgis grew and prospered,
And the fairies' life was in them,
In the lightness of their movement,
In the quickness of their turning,
In their badness and their goodness.
And they learnt to work for mortals,
Learnt to love their mortal masters,
Learnt to work their masters' cattle,
Learnt to play with mortal children.

Now in every vale and hamlet,
In the valleys and the mountains,
From the little town of Tenby,
By the Port of Milford Haven,
To St. David's Head and Fishguard,
In the valley of the Cleddau,
On the mountains of Preselly,
Lives the Pembrokeshire Welsh Corgi,
Lives the Corgi with his master.

Should you doubt this ancient story,
Laugh and scoff and call it nonsense,
Look and see the saddle markings
Where the fairy warriors rode them
(As they ride them still at midnight,
On Midsummer's Eve at midnight,
When the mortals are all sleeping! )


The Fairy Saddle

Long, long ago in the days of yore,
It might've been sooner, or not before,
Along a mountain track there came,
A gallant Corgi of quite some fame.
And there beside the track he spied
A maiden fair, who to him cried,
"Oh kindly Corgi, hear my plea;
I've fallen off my horse you see.
And so before you further roam
Would you, please sir, take me home?"
So said the Corgi, "I do confess;
How could I leave you in distress?
So climb upon my back fair maid
I'll take you home as you have bade."
And so the Corgi started forth;
"My home's a castle to the north."
They journeyed there, and at her door
She cried, "I should have said before,
I'm a fairy princess sir, you see,
And for you kindness to me,
I'll leave upon your back
All traces of the fairy tack."
And till this day you still can find
The fairy's saddle to remind,
How the Corgi helped the princess fair,
And just as well for you will care.

~Anonymous