Annwn, Annwfn, or Annwfyn (; ''Annwvn'', ''Annwyn'', ''Annwyfn'', ''Annwvyn'', or ''Annwfyn'') is the

Otherworld In historical Indo-European religion, the concept of an otherworld, also known as an otherside, is reconstructed in comparative mythology. Its name is a calque of ''orbis alius'' (Latin for "other world/side"), a term used by Lucan in his desc ...

Welsh mythology Welsh mythology (also commonly known as ''Y Chwedlau'', meaning "The Legends") consists of both folk traditions developed in Wales, and traditions developed by the Celtic Britons elsewhere before the end of the first millennium. As in most of t ...

. Ruled by Arawn (or, in Arthurian literature, by Gwyn ap Nudd), it is a world of delights and eternal youth where disease is absent and food is ever-abundant.

Name and etymology

Middle Welsh Middle Welsh (, ) is the label attached to the Welsh language of the 12th to 15th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This form of Welsh developed directly from Old Welsh (). Literature and history Middle Welsh is ...

sources suggest that the term was recognised as meaning "very deep" in medieval times. The appearance of a form ''antumnos'' on an ancient

Gaulish Gaulish is an extinct Celtic languages, Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, ...

curse tablet A curse tablet (; ) is a small tablet with a curse written on it from the Greco-Roman world. Its name originated from the Greek and Latin words for "pierce" and "bind". The tablets were used to ask the gods, place spirits, or the deceased to perfo ...

, which means ''an'' ('other') + ''tumnos'' ('world'), however, suggests that the original term may have been *''ande-dubnos'', a common Gallo-Brittonic word that literally meant "underworld". The pronunciation of Modern Welsh ''Annwn'' is .

Whereabouts of Annwn

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 of the '' Mabinogi'', 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 of the ''Mabinogi'' are located in Harlech in northwest Wales and on Ynys Gwales in southwest

Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and otherwise by the sea. Haverfordwest is the largest town and ...

Locations inside Annwn

* Caer Sidi ("Revolving/Spinning Fortress") A fortress containing the Cauldron of Annwn, the "Chair" of

Taliesin Taliesin ( , ; 6th century AD) was an early Britons (Celtic people), Brittonic poet of Sub-Roman Britain whose work has possibly survived in a Middle Welsh manuscript, the ''Book of Taliesin''. Taliesin was a renowned bard who is believed to ...

, and where Gweir was imprisoned. It was also named: * Caer Wydyr ("Glass Fortress") A fortress guarded by six thousand men whose watchman was difficult to converse with. * Caer Pedryvan ("Four cornered/peaked fortress") A fortress located on the "Isle of the strong door" * Caer Vedwyd ("Fortress of Revelry/Drunkenness") * Caer Vandwy ("Fortress of God's Peak") * Caer Rigor ("Kingly Fortress"/"Fortress of Hardness") * Caer Golud ("Fortress of Riches")

Appearances in Welsh literature

Annwn plays a reasonably prominent role in the

Four Branches of the Mabinogi The ''Four Branches of the Mabinogi'' or are the earliest prose stories in the literature of Great Britain, Britain. Originally written in Wales in Middle Welsh, but widely available in translations, the is generally agreed to be a single work i ...

, a set of four interlinked mythological tales dating from the early medieval period. In the First Branch of the '' Mabinogi'', entitled '' Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed'', the eponymous prince offends Arawn, ruler of Annwn, by baiting his hunting hounds on a stag that Arawn's dogs had brought down. In recompense he exchanges places with Arawn for a year and defeats Arawn's enemy Hafgan, 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, Arawn is mentioned but does not appear; it is revealed that he sent a gift of otherworldly pigs to Pwyll's son and successor, Pryderi, which ultimately leads to war between Dyfed and

Gwynedd Gwynedd () is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The ci ...

The similarly mythological epic poem ''

Cad Goddeu ''Cad Goddeu'' (, ) is a medieval Welsh language, 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 ...

'' describes a battle between Gwynedd and the forces of Annwn, led again by Arawn. It is revealed that

Amaethon In Welsh mythology, Amaethon ( (), meaning "Amaethon son of Dôn") was the god of agriculture, and the son of the goddess DônCotterell, Arthur: The Encyclopedia of Mythology, page 97. Hermes House, 2007. and Beli Mawr, and brother to Arianrhod, ...

, nephew to

Math Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

, king of Gwynedd, stole a bitch, a lapwing and a roebuck 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, the Venedotian

hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. The original hero type of classical epics did such thin ...

and magician successfully defeats Arawn's army, first by enchanting the trees to rise up and fight and then by guessing the name of the enemy hero

Bran Bran, also known as miller's bran, is the component of a Cereal, cereal grain consisting of the hard layersthe combined aleurone and Fruit anatomy#Pericarp layers, pericarpsurrounding the endosperm. Maize, Corn (maize) bran also includes the p ...

, thus winning the battle. '' Preiddeu Annwfn'', an early medieval poem found in the

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 or before. The volume cont ...

, describes a voyage led by

King Arthur According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Great Britain, Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In Wales, Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a le ...

to the numerous otherworldy kingdoms within Annwn, either to rescue the prisoner Gweir or to retrieve the

cauldron A cauldron (or caldron) is a large cookware and bakeware, pot (kettle) for cooking or boiling over an open fire, with a lid and frequently with an arc-shaped hanger and/or integral handles or feet. There is a rich history of cauldron lore in r ...

of the Head of Annwn. The narrator of the poem is possibly intended to be

himself. One line can be interpreted as implying that he received his gift of poetry or speech from a magic

, as Taliesin does in other texts, and Taliesin's name is connected to a similar story in another work.Higley, note t
''Preiddeu Annwn'', Stanza II, line 13.
/ref> The speaker relates how he journeyed with

Arthur Arthur is a masculine given name of uncertain etymology. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. A common spelling variant used in many Slavic, Romance, and Germanic languages is Artur. In Spanish and Ital ...

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 The Welsh Triads (, "Triads of the Island of Britain") 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 o ...

, 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 various forms of knowledge possessed by the poet. Over time, the role of king of Annwn was transferred to Gwyn ap Nudd, a hunter and

psychopomp Psychopomps (from the Greek word , , literally meaning the 'guide of souls') are creatures, spirits, angels, demons, or deities in many religions whose responsibility is to escort newly deceased souls from Earth to the afterlife. Their role is ...

, who may have been the Welsh personification of winter. The Christian ''Vita Collen'' tells of Saint Collen vanquishing Gwyn and his otherworldly court from

Glastonbury Tor Glastonbury Tor is a hill near Glastonbury in the English county of Somerset, topped by the roofless tower of St Michael's Church, a Grade I Listed building (United Kingdom), listed building. The site is managed by the National Trust and has be ...

with the use of

holy water Holy water is water that has been blessed by a member of the clergy or a religious figure, or derived from a well or spring considered holy. The use for cleansing prior to a baptism and spiritual cleansing is common in several religions, from ...

. In '' Culhwch and Olwen'', an early Welsh Arthurian tale, it is said that God gave Gwyn ap Nudd control over the

demon A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in folklore, mythology, religion, occultism, and literature; these beliefs are reflected in Media (communication), media including f ...

s lest "this world be destroyed." Tradition revolves around Gwyn leading his spectral hunts, the

Cŵn Annwn In Welsh mythology and folklore, Cŵn Annwn (, "hounds of Annwn"), singular Ci 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 either Arawn, king of ...

("Hounds of Annwn"), on his hunt for mortal souls. Angelika Rüdiger's Doctoral Thesis, 'Y Tylwyth Teg: an analysis of a literary motif' (Bangor University, 2021) is a detailed study of supernatural characters connected with Annwn (including Gwyn ap Nudd), covering a period from the earliest sources to the 19th and 20th centuries.

Annwn in modern culture

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson ...

used the word ''annún'' in his

Middle-earth Middle-earth is the Setting (narrative), setting of much of the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy. The term is equivalent to the ''Midgard, Miðgarðr'' of Norse mythology and ''Middangeard'' in Old English works, including ''Beowulf'' ...

mythology Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

as a term in the Elvish language

Sindarin Sindarin is one of Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien, the constructed languages devised by J. R. R. Tolkien for use in his fantasy stories set in Arda (Tolkien), Arda, primarily in Middle-earth. Sindarin is one of the many languages spoke ...

(phonologically inspired by Welsh) meaning "west" or "sunset" (cognate with the

Quenya Quenya ()Tolkien wrote in his "Outline of Phonology" (in '' Parma Eldalamberon'' 19, p. 74) dedicated to the phonology of Quenya: is "a sound as in English ''new''". In Quenya is a combination of consonants, ibidem., p. 81. is a constructed l ...

''Andúnë''), often referring figuratively to the "True West", i.e. the blessed land of Aman beyond the Sea, the Lonely Island

Tol Eressëa Valinor (Quenya'': Land of the Valar''), the Blessed Realm, or the Undying Lands is a fictional location in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the home of the immortal Vala (Middle-earth), Valar and Maia (Middle-earth), Maiar on the continent of Am ...

, or (in the later mannish usage) to the drowned island of

Númenor Númenor, also called Elenna-nórë or Westernesse, is a fictional place in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings. It was the kingdom occupying a large island to the west of Middle-earth, the main setting of Tolkien's writings, and was the greatest civil ...

. This is an example of Tolkien's method of world-building by "explaining the true meaning" of various real-world words by assigning them an alternative "Elvish" etymology. The Sindarin word for 'king', ''aran'' is also similar to , the king of . The Anglo-Welsh author, poet, critic and playwright, David Jones Annwn (born 1953) adopted the name Annwn in 1975 in the same spirit that his great-uncle, the Welsh bard , had adopted the name Ap Hefin ("Son of the Summer Solstice"). Annwn is the name of a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

medieval and pagan folk duo from

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

. The name was also previously used by an unrelated Celtic Rock trio in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

, from 1991 until the death of lead singer Leigh Ann Hussey on 16 May 2006. Annwn is one of the deep realms of Faerie in ''October Daye'', a 2012 urban fantasy series written by Seanan McGuire. British author Niel Bushnell's novels ''Sorrowline'' and ''Timesmith'' feature an island called Annwn in the realm of Otherworld. Children's author

Lloyd Alexander Lloyd Chudley Alexander (January 30, 1924 – May 17, 2007) was an American author of more than 40 books, primarily fantasy novels for children's literature, children and young adults. Over his seven-decade career, Alexander wrote 48 books, and ...

used the name "Annuvin", an Anglicized spelling of the variant ''Annwfyn'', in his '' Chronicles of Prydain'' series. Annuvin is the domain of Arawn, who in these novels plays the role of a villainous

dark lord In fiction and mythology, a dark lord (sometimes capitalized as Dark Lord or referred to as an evil overlord, evil emperor etc. depending on the work) is an antagonistic archetype, acting as the pinnacle of villainy and evil within a typically h ...

. On the British rock band The Mechanisms' 2014 album ''High Noon Over Camelot'', a

space Western Space Western is a subgenre of science fiction that uses the themes and tropes of Western (genre), Westerns within science-fiction stories in an outer space setting. Subtle influences may include Deep space exploration, exploration of new, law ...

retelling of the Arthurian mythos, "Annwn" is the name given to the lower levels of the space station Fort Galfridian. One of the areas in the platform-adventure video game '' La-Mulana 2'' is named Annwfn. ''Annwn: The Otherworld'' is a surreal stealth/strategy game drawing on Welsh mythic motifs.

Notes

Sources

*Lambert, Pierre-Yves. (2003). ''La langue gauloise: description linguistique, commentaire d’inscriptions choisies.'' Paris: Errance. 2nd ed. *Sims-Williams, Patrick. (1990). "Some Celtic otherworld terms". ''Celtic Language, Celtic Culture: a Festschrift for Eric P. Hamp'', ed. Ann T. E. Matonis and Daniel F. Mela, pp. 57–84. Van Nuys, Ca.: Ford & Bailie. *Davies, Sioned. (2007). ''The Mabinogion – a new translation''. (Oxford World's Classics.) *Mac Cana, Proinsias. (1983). ''Celtic Mythology'' (Library of the World's Myths and Legends). Littlehampton Book Services Ltd. *Lindahl, C. A. (2000–2002). ''Medieval Folklore''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Inc. * Matthews, John. (1996). ''Sources of the Grail''. Edinburgh: Floris Books . *Dixon-Kennedy, Mike. (1996). ''Celtic Myth & Legend''. London: Blandford and Cassel Imprint . {{hell Locations associated with Arthurian legend Places in Celtic mythology Welsh mythology Taliesin Underworld