Melangell Gallery
Melangell’s Art in Wax, but not just in Wales!
Why The Name 'Melangell'?
Christine paints under the name of Melangell. She likes the idea of creating a link between the very old art-form of painting with beeswax and the 6th century legend of Melangell.
Melangell was a high-born young Irish girl who fled to Powys, Mid Wales to avoid an arranged marriage in Ireland.
One day, out walking in the tiny valley surrounded by huge tree-covered cliffs, she saved a hare from the huntsmen of Prince Brochwel of Powys. The hare was protected by her long skirt, and the hounds would not approach her. The hunting horn, on being blown, failed to make a sound.
Prince Brochwel, intrigued by the strange happenings and by her serenity, gave her the tiny plot of land where she stood, and had a tiny chapel built in her honour in the small, hidden valley where she had made her home, and where she has lain buried since the 6th century.
Melangell is the Celtic patron saint of small, wild creatures.
The chapel is still there, and people who visit it remark upon the tranquillity and special atmosphere of the place. Surrounded by the towering wooded cliffs, ancient yew trees, some of them fifteen hundred years old, embrace the tiny chapel.
Those interested in seeking the haven of Melangell's valley will need to travel to the village of Llangynog, North Powys. In the small village a wooden signpost directs one to 'Pennant Melangell', and one journeys a couple of miles through flowery, overgrown lanes, to find her chapel.
The name Melangell could be translated roughly from Welsh to mean Angel of Honey - another link, perhaps, with bees and beeswax!
