Folklore: Who killed the last wolf in Wales?

She added: “Maybe the closest you could get to is ‘stranger danger’, or ‘just say no’, a memorable tale to warn youngsters of the potential peril they faced.”

The best evidence available suggests the last wolves in Wales died out in the medieval period, about 1200 AD, and claimed relatively few lives.

Nevertheless, the stories of who killed the last one in Wales and where go on until the Tudor period.

Some gruesome examples of wolf paws were kept at Island House at Laugharne.

The claim is that the wolf paws come from Dinefwr, which would link them back to more distinguished Welsh princes.

According to more popular legend, the last Welsh wolf was killed near Coed y Bleiddiau (Wood of the Wolves), near Maentwrog in Eryri National Park, also known as Snowdonia, in the early decades of the 16th Century.

A competing story is that the last example died after being defeated in Ffos y Bleiddaid (Ditch of the Wolves), around the same time.

The woodland here is called Coed y Bleiddiau and a modern statue commemorates the event.

“If you follow the dates of the legends, it’s probably nonsense, as wolves would have died out at least two or three hundred years before,” Dr Wood said.

“However, claiming you’d beaten such a beast made you almost invincible to your opponents, and very difficult to overcome in battle.”