Annwn
Encyclopedia
Annwn or Annwfn was the Otherworld
Otherworld
Otherworld, or the Celtic Otherworld, is a concept in Celtic mythology that refers to the home of the deities or spirits, or a realm of the dead.Otherworld may also refer to:In film and television:...

 in Welsh mythology
Welsh mythology
Welsh mythology, the remnants of the mythology of the pre-Christian Britons, has come down to us in much altered form in medieval Welsh manuscripts such as the Red Book of Hergest, the White Book of Rhydderch, the Book of Aneirin and the Book of Taliesin....

. Ruled by Arawn
Arawn
In Welsh mythology, Arawn was the king of the otherworld realm of Annwn, appearing prominently in the first branch, and alluded to in the fourth. In later tradition, the role of king of Annwn was largely attributed to the Welsh psychopomp, Gwyn ap Nudd...

, or much later by Gwyn ap Nudd
Gwyn ap Nudd
Gwyn ap Nudd is a Welsh mythological figure, the king of the Tylwyth Teg or "fair folk" and ruler of the Welsh Otherworld, Annwn. Described as a great warrior with a "blackened face", Gwyn is intimately associated with the otherworld in medieval Welsh literature, and is associated with the...

, it was essentially a world of delights and eternal youth where disease is absent and food is ever-abundant. It later became Christianised and identified with the land of souls that had departed this world
Afterlife
The afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...

. In modern Breton, "Anaon" is synonymous with paradise rather than hell and the phrase "mont da Anaon", literally "to go to Anaon", is a euphemism for "to die" .

Name and etymology

Middle Welsh sources suggest that the term was recognised as meaning "very deep" in medieval times.. The appearance of a form antumnos on an ancient Gaulish curse tablet
Curse tablet
A curse tablet or binding spell is a type of curse found throughout the Graeco-Roman world, in which someone would ask the gods to do harm to others.-Description:...

, however, suggests that the original term may have been *ande-dubnos (*andubnos in British), a common Gallo-Brittonic word that literally meant "underworld" (Lambert 2003). The pronunciation of Modern Welsh  Annwn is ˈanːʊn.

Mythical locations

In both Welsh and Irish mythologies, the Otherworld was believed to be located either on an island or underneath the earth. In the First Branch
Pwyll Pendefig Dyfed
; "Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed," is a legendary tale from medieval Welsh literature and the first of the four branches of the Mabinogi. It tells of the friendship between Pwyll, prince of Dyfed, and Arawn, lord of the Otherworld, of the courting and marriage of Pwyll and Rhiannon and of the birth and...

 of the Mabinogi
Four Branches of the Mabinogi
The Four Branches of the Mabinogi are the best known tales from the collection of medieval Welsh prose known as the Mabinogion. The word "Mabinogi" originally designated only these four tales, which are really parts or "branches" of a single work, rather than the whole collection...

, it is implied that Annwn is a land within Dyfed, while the context of the Arthurian poem Preiddeu Annwfn suggests an island location. Two other otherworldly feasts that occur in the Second Branch
Branwen ferch Llŷr
; "Branwen, daughter of Llŷr" is a legendary tale from medieval Welsh literature and the second of the four branches of the Mabinogi. It concerns the children of Llŷr; Bendigeidfran , high king of Britain, and his siblings Manawydan and Branwen, and deals with the latter's marriage to Matholwch,...

 of the Mabinogi are located in Harlech
Harlech
Harlech is a town and seaside resort in Gwynedd, within the historical boundaries of Merionethshire in northwest Wales. Lying on Tremadog Bay and within the Snowdonia National Park, it has a population of 1,952, of whom 59% speak Welsh...

 in northwest Wales and on the island of Grassholm
Grassholm
Grassholm is a small uninhabited island situated off the southwestern Pembrokeshire coast in Wales, lying west of Skomer. It is the westernmost point in Wales and is known for its huge colony of gannets...

 in southwestern Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire is a county in the south west of Wales. It borders Carmarthenshire to the east and Ceredigion to the north east. The county town is Haverfordwest where Pembrokeshire County Council is headquartered....

.

Appearances in Welsh literature

Annwn plays a reasonably prominent role in the Four Branches of the Mabinogi
Four Branches of the Mabinogi
The Four Branches of the Mabinogi are the best known tales from the collection of medieval Welsh prose known as the Mabinogion. The word "Mabinogi" originally designated only these four tales, which are really parts or "branches" of a single work, rather than the whole collection...

, four interlinked mythological tales dating from the early medieval period. In the First Branch
Pwyll Pendefig Dyfed
; "Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed," is a legendary tale from medieval Welsh literature and the first of the four branches of the Mabinogi. It tells of the friendship between Pwyll, prince of Dyfed, and Arawn, lord of the Otherworld, of the courting and marriage of Pwyll and Rhiannon and of the birth and...

 of the Mabinogi
Mabinogion
The Mabinogion is the title given to a collection of eleven prose stories collated from medieval Welsh manuscripts. The tales draw on pre-Christian Celtic mythology, international folktale motifs, and early medieval historical traditions...

, entitled Pwyll
Pwyll
Pwyll Pen Annwn is a prominent figure in Welsh mythology and literature, the lord of Dyfed, husband of Rhiannon and father of the hero Pryderi...

, Prince of Dyfed
Dyfed
Dyfed is a preserved county of Wales. It was created on 1 April 1974 under the terms of the Local Government Act 1972, and covered approximately the same geographic extent as the ancient Principality of Deheubarth, although excluding the Gower Peninsula and the area west of the River Tawe...

, the eponymous prince offends Arawn, ruler of Annwn, by baiting his hunting hounds on a stag that Arawn's dogs
Cwn Annwn
In Welsh mythology and folklore, Cŵn Annwn were the spectral hounds of Annwn, the otherworld of Welsh myth. They were associated with a form of the Wild Hunt, presided over by Gwynn ap Nudd...

 had brought down. In recompense he exchanges places with Arawn for a year and defeats Arawn's enemy Hafgan
Hafgan
Hafgan is one of the kings of the otherworld, Annwn, in Welsh mythology. He appears in the First Branch of the Mabinogi as the main rival of Arawn, the other king of Annwn. The dominions of the two kings sit side by side, and Hafgan is constantly warring against Arawn...

, while Arawn rules in his stead in Dyfed. During this year, Pwyll abstains from sleeping with Arawn's wife earning himself gratitude and eternal friendship from Arawn. On his return, Pwyll becomes known by the title Penn Annwn, "Head (or Ruler) of Annwn." In the Fourth Branch
Math fab Mathonwy (Branch)
; "Math, the son of Mathonwy" is a legendary tale from medieval Welsh literature and the final of the four branches of the Mabinogi. It tells of a vicious war between the north and the south, of the birth of Lleu Llaw Gyffes and Dylan ail Don, of the tyngedau of Arianrhod, and of the creation of...

, Arawn is mentioned but does not appear; it is revealed that he sent a gift of otherworldly pigs as a gift to Pwyll's son and successor, Pryderi
Pryderi
Pryderi fab Pwyll is a prominent figure in Welsh mythology, the son of Pwyll and Rhiannon, and king of Dyfed following his father's death. He is the only character to appear in all Four Branches of the Mabinogi, although the size of his role varies from tale to tale...

, which ultimately leads to war between Dyfed and Gwynedd
Kingdom of Gwynedd
Gwynedd was one petty kingdom of several Welsh successor states which emerged in 5th-century post-Roman Britain in the Early Middle Ages, and later evolved into a principality during the High Middle Ages. It was based on the former Brythonic tribal lands of the Ordovices, Gangani, and the...

.
The similarly mythological epic poem Cad Goddeu
Cad Goddeu
Cad Goddeu is a medieval Welsh poem preserved in the 14th-century manuscript known as the Book of Taliesin. The poem refers to a traditional story in which the legendary enchanter Gwydion animates the trees of the forest to fight as his army...

describes a battle between Gwynedd and the forces of Annwn, lead again by Arawn. It is revealed that Amaethon
Amaethon
In Welsh mythology, Amaethon was the god of agriculture, and the son of the goddess Dôn. His name means "labourer" or "ploughman", and he is cited as being responsible for the Cad Goddeu, or "Battle of Trees", between the lord of the otherworld, Arawn, and the Children of Dôn .-Sources:The...

, nephew to Math, king of Gwynedd, stole a bitch
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...

, a lapwing
Lapwing
Vanellinae are any of various crested plovers, family Charadriidae, noted for its slow, irregular wingbeat in flight and a shrill, wailing cry. Its length is 10-16 inches. They are a subfamily of medium-sized wading birds which also includes the plovers and dotterels. The Vanellinae are...

 and a roebuck
Roebuck
Roebuck may refer to:* male Roe Deer, a type of deerPeople* Alvah C. Roebuck , American businessman and co-founder of Sears, Roebuck and Company* Henry Disney Roebuck, builder of Midford Castle in 1775...

 from the Otherworld, leading to a war between the two peoples. The denizens of Annwn are depicted as bizarre and hellish creatures; these include a "wide-mawed" beast with a hundred heads and bearing a host beneath the root of its tongue and another under its neck, a hundred-clawed black-groined toad, and a "mottled ridged serpent, with a thousand souls, by their sins, tortured in the holds of its flesh". Gwydion
Gwydion
Gwydion fab Dôn is a magician, hero and trickster of Welsh mythology, appearing most prominently in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi, which focuses largely on his relationship with his young nephew, Lleu Llaw Gyffes...

, the Venedotian hero
Hero
A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion...

 and magician
Magic (illusion)
Magic is a performing art that entertains audiences by staging tricks or creating illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats using natural means...

 successfully defeats Arawn's army; first by enchanting the trees to rise up and fight, and secondly by guessing the name of the enemy hero Bran, thus winning the battle.

Preiddeu Annwfn
Preiddeu Annwfn
Preiddeu Annwfn or Preiddeu Annwn is a cryptic early medieval Welsh poem of sixty lines found in the Book of Taliesin. The text recounts an expedition with King Arthur to Annwfn or Annwn, a Welsh otherworld...

, an early medieval poem found in the Book of Taliesin
Book of Taliesin
The Book of Taliesin is one of the most famous of Middle Welsh manuscripts, dating from the first half of the 14th century though many of the fifty-six poems it preserves are taken to originate in the 10th century. The manuscript, known as Peniarth MS 2 and kept at the National Library of Wales,...

 describes a voyage led by King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...

 to the numerous otherworldy kingdoms within Annwn, either to rescue the prisoner Gweir, or to retrieve the cauldron
Cauldron
A cauldron or caldron is a large metal pot for cooking and/or boiling over an open fire, with a large mouth and frequently with an arc-shaped hanger.- Etymology :...

 of the Head of Annwn. The narrator of the poem is possibly intended to be Taliesin
Taliesin
Taliesin was an early British poet of the post-Roman period whose work has possibly survived in a Middle Welsh manuscript, the Book of Taliesin...

 himself. One line can be interpreted as implying that he received his gift of poetry or speech from a magic cauldron
Cauldron
A cauldron or caldron is a large metal pot for cooking and/or boiling over an open fire, with a large mouth and frequently with an arc-shaped hanger.- Etymology :...

, as Taliesin does in other texts, and Taliesin's name is connected to a similar story in another work. The speaker relates how he journeyed with Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...

 and three boatloads of men into Annwfn, but only seven returned. Annwfn is apparently referred to by several names, including "Mound Fortress," "Four-Peaked Fortress," and "Glass Fortress", though it is possible the poet intended these to be distinct places. Within the Mound Fort's walls Gweir, one of the "Three Exalted Prisoners of Britain" known from the Welsh Triads
Welsh Triads
The Welsh Triads are a group of related texts in medieval manuscripts which preserve fragments of Welsh folklore, mythology and traditional history in groups of three. The triad is a rhetorical form whereby objects are grouped together in threes, with a heading indicating the point of likeness...

, is imprisoned in chains. The narrator then describes the cauldron of the Chief of Annwn; it is finished with pearl and will not boil a coward's food. Whatever tragedy ultimately killed all but seven of them is not clearly explained. The poem continues with an excoriation of "little men" and monks, who lack in various forms of knowledge possessed by the poet.

Over time, the role of king of Annwn was transferred to Gwyn ap Nudd
Gwyn ap Nudd
Gwyn ap Nudd is a Welsh mythological figure, the king of the Tylwyth Teg or "fair folk" and ruler of the Welsh Otherworld, Annwn. Described as a great warrior with a "blackened face", Gwyn is intimately associated with the otherworld in medieval Welsh literature, and is associated with the...

, a hunter and psychopomp
Psychopomp
Psychopomps are creatures, spirits, angels, or deities in many religions whose responsibility is to escort newly deceased souls to the afterlife. Their role is not to judge the deceased, but simply provide safe passage...

, who may have been the Welsh personification of winter
Winter
Winter is the coldest season of the year in temperate climates, between autumn and spring. At the winter solstice, the days are shortest and the nights are longest, with days lengthening as the season progresses after the solstice.-Meteorology:...

. The Christian Vita Collen tells of Saint Collen vanquishing Gwyn and his otherworldly court from Glastonbury Tor
Glastonbury Tor
Glastonbury Tor is a hill at Glastonbury, Somerset, England, which features the roofless St. Michael's Tower. The site is managed by the National Trust. It has been designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument ....

 with the use of holy water
Holy water
Holy water is water that, in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Oriental Orthodoxy, and some other churches, has been sanctified by a priest for the purpose of baptism, the blessing of persons, places, and objects; or as a means of repelling evil.The use for baptism and...

. In Culhwch and Olwen
Culhwch and Olwen
Culhwch and Olwen is a Welsh tale about a hero connected with Arthur and his warriors that survives in only two manuscripts: a complete version in the Red Book of Hergest, ca. 1400, and a fragmented version in the White Book of Rhydderch, ca. 1325. It is the longest of the surviving Welsh prose...

, an early Welsh Arthurian tale, it is said God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

 gave Gwyn ap Nudd control over the demon
Demon
call - 1347 531 7769 for more infoIn Ancient Near Eastern religions as well as in the Abrahamic traditions, including ancient and medieval Christian demonology, a demon is considered an "unclean spirit" which may cause demonic possession, to be addressed with an act of exorcism...

s lest "this world be destroyed." Tradition revolves around Gwyn leading his spectral rouds, the Cwn Annwn
Cwn Annwn
In Welsh mythology and folklore, Cŵn Annwn were the spectral hounds of Annwn, the otherworld of Welsh myth. They were associated with a form of the Wild Hunt, presided over by Gwynn ap Nudd...

 ("Hounds of Annwn") on his hunt for mortal souls.

Preiddeu Annwfn from the breath of nine maidens (Igraine
Igraine
Igraine , in Arthurian legend, is the mother of King Arthur. She is also known in Latin as Igerna, in Welsh as Eigyr, in French as Igerne, in Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur as Ygrayne— often modernized as Igraine—and in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival as Arnive...

, Guinever, Morgan
Morgan le Fay
Morgan le Fay , alternatively known as Morgane, Morgaine, Morgana and other variants, is a powerful sorceress in the Arthurian legend. Early works featuring Morgan do not elaborate her character beyond her role as a fay or magician...

, Argante, Nimue, Enide
Enide
Enide or Enid is a character from Arthurian legend. She is Erec's wife in Chrétien de Troyes' Erec and Enide, and Geraint's in the Welsh Romance Geraint and Enid, analogous to Chrétien's version...

, Kundry, Dindrane
Dindrane
In Arthurian Legend, Dindrane is the sister of Percival. Though she is frequently not given a name, Percival's sister is a major character in many of the Holy Grail stories and is sometimes claimed as the "Grail heroine"....

, Ragnell) it was kindled.

Annwn in cinema

In 2005 John Fawcett
John Fawcett (director)
John Fawcett is a Canadian director of film and television. His best known films are the 2000 werewolf movie Ginger Snaps and the 2005 horror film The Dark...

 directed the film The Dark
The Dark (film)
The Dark is a 2005 horror film, based on the novel Sheep by Simon Maginn.- Plot :While in Wales visiting her husband James , Adele tries to fix her relationship with her obnoxious and volatile pre-teen daughter Sarah...

. Based on the novel book Sheep
Sheep (novel)
Sheep is a horror novel by British author Simon Maginn, originally published in 1994 and reissued in 1997. It is now out-of-print. The book provided the basis for the 2005 film The Dark, although the plot changed drastically in the conversion from book to film.-Plot:A young family moves to rural...

written by Simon Maginn
Simon Maginn
Simon Maginn is a British writer who has published five novels under his own name: Sheep , Virgins and Martyrs , A Sickness of the Soul , Methods of Confinement and Rattus which was published alongside a novella by Gary Fry entitled The Invisible...

, the movie tales the story of Adèlle, a divorced woman who travels to Wales together with her daughter Sarah to meet her ex husband, James. When Sarah disappears in a reef a little girl called Ebrill, missed 50 years ago, is found in the waters little time after. Looking for her daughter, a man called Dafydd tells Adèlle the story of Rowan Hywell alias "The Shepherd", Ebrill's father who created a sect
Sect
A sect is a group with distinctive religious, political or philosophical beliefs. Although in past it was mostly used to refer to religious groups, it has since expanded and in modern culture can refer to any organization that breaks away from a larger one to follow a different set of rules and...

 in the town of Stumblehead after Ebrill's death to commit mass suicide
Mass suicide
- Examples :Mass suicide sometimes occurs in religious or cultic settings. Defeated groups may resort to mass suicide rather than being captured. Suicide pacts are a form of mass suicide unconnected to cults or war that are sometimes planned or carried out by small groups of frustrated people...

 in order to recover Ebrill from Annwyn, the Welsh Otherworld
Otherworld
Otherworld, or the Celtic Otherworld, is a concept in Celtic mythology that refers to the home of the deities or spirits, or a realm of the dead.Otherworld may also refer to:In film and television:...

. The Shepherd finally recovered Ebrill, but believing that the girl suffered demonic possession
Demonic possession
Demonic possession is held by many belief systems to be the control of an individual by a malevolent supernatural being. Descriptions of demonic possessions often include erased memories or personalities, convulsions, “fits” and fainting as if one were dying...

 by the dark, he tried exorcize
Exorcism
Exorcism is the religious practice of evicting demons or other spiritual entities from a person or place which they are believed to have possessed...

 her by means of the trepanation
Trepanation
Trepanning, also known as trephination, trephining or making a burr hole, is a surgical intervention in which a hole is drilled or scraped into the human skull, exposing the dura mater in order to treat health problems related to intracranial diseases. It may also refer to any "burr" hole created...

, dying again and being took to the waters to return her Annwyn by a young Dafydd. Understanding that Ebrill abducted Sarah into Annwyn to live again, Adèlle takes Ebrill to enter both in Annwyn looking for meet Sarah and save her.
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