Love stories often promise happy endings. But these two certainly don’t. Both ask a sharper question: what does love cost when it can’t be simple?
St Dwynwen is known as Wales’ Patron Saint of Lovers, celebrated on 25 January. Her legend is about heartbreak, difficult choices, and turning personal pain into care for others. Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman is different in style, all storms and sweeping music, but it lands on strikingly similar themes: devotion, sacrifice, and redemption.
Devotion
In The Flying Dutchman, devotion begins before romance. Senta becomes obsessed with the legend of the Dutchman long before she meets him. She believes she is meant to save him, and that belief shapes everything she does. It pulls her away from an ordinary future with Erik, the man who wants her to choose a safer, familiar life.
Dwynwen’s devotion is quieter and more personal. She falls in love with Maelon, but her father refuses the match. In the legend, Dwynwen prays to forget him and Maelon is turned to ice. She is then granted three wishes: that Maelon is thawed, that God helps true lovers, and that she will never marry. Instead of building a life around the love she lost, she turns towards faith and service.
Both women commit to something bigger than their own comfort. Senta commits to a person she believes she can redeem. Dwynwen commits to helping others, even when she can’t have what she wanted
Sacrifice
Both stories insist that love is proven by what you give up.
Senta’s sacrifice is immediate and dramatic. When the Dutchman believes he has been betrayed and prepares to leave, she refuses to let doubt win. In the original story, she throws herself into the sea. In Wagner’s world, that kind of loyalty is the only thing powerful enough to break the curse.
Dwynwen’s sacrifice is slower and harder to show on a stage. She does not die for love. She lives after it. She chooses not to marry, and she carries that decision for the rest of her life.
Thus, both women sacrifice their futures. While Senta gives her future up in a single act, Dwynwen gives hers up through a choice she keeps making.
Redemption
Redemption sits at the centre of both stories, but it works in different ways.
In The Flying Dutchman, redemption is direct. The Dutchman is cursed, and faithful love is the only thing that can free him. Senta’s devotion becomes the turning key.
In Dwynwen’s legend, redemption is not about “fixing” the past. It’s about transforming it. Dwynwen cannot return to an easy love story, but she turns heartbreak into a blessing. Her name becomes linked to hope for lovers, not because she got what she wanted, but because she chose kindness anyway.
Feeling inspired?
Catch Welsh National Opera’s new production of The Flying Dutchman, between 16 April - 15 May 2026 in Cardiff, Plymouth, Birmingham or Milton Keynes.