Welsh folklore, Wirt Sikes
Annwn
In Sikes’s lake-fairy account, Annwn is a lower world linked to human places by bodies of water. The Gwragedd Annwn and their mysterious companions inhabit a realm that can communicate with the surface. The collection also retells the encounter of Pwyll with Arawn’s white hounds, placing Arawn as a crowned king in Annwn. Elsewhere Gwyn is named its ruler, so the collection preserves more than one narrative frame.
Also known as Annwfn · Welsh otherworld
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In the sources
Principal account
TraditionalIn Sikes’s lake-fairy account, Annwn is a lower world linked to human places by bodies of water. The Gwragedd Annwn and their mysterious companions inhabit a realm that can communicate with the surface.
Further detail
TraditionalThe collection also retells the encounter of Pwyll with Arawn’s white hounds, placing Arawn as a crowned king in Annwn. Elsewhere Gwyn is named its ruler, so the collection preserves more than one narrative frame.
Context & interpretation
This entry compares two explicitly different accounts within Sikes’s collection. His terms shadow-land, Hades and hell are interpretive translations; no single theological equivalence or universal map of Annwn is assumed.
Original passages
Source 1
British Goblins
the shadowy domain presided over by Gwyn ap NuddOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Wirt Sikes, British Goblins (1880), active reader leaf 49
Exact passage checked against active scan text and its original-leaf mapping; whitespace and scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0044-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0044-E001-P0049
- Original scan leaf
- 50
- Recorded leaf number
- 50
- Current Reader position
- 48
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
British Goblins
Arawn, a crowned king in the land of AnnwnOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Wirt Sikes, British Goblins (1880), active reader leaf 249
Exact passage checked against active scan text and its original-leaf mapping; whitespace and scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0044-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0044-E001-P0249
- Original scan leaf
- 250
- Recorded leaf number
- 250
- Current Reader position
- 248
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Continue exploring
Arawn
The crowned king of Annwn whose white hounds meet Pwyll in the forest.
Shared source pageCŵn Annwn
Otherworld hounds whose cries can foretell a funeral route.
Shared source pageGwragedd Annwn
Women of the lake realm, whose encounters with humans can cross the boundary of Annwn.
Shared source pagePwyll
The prince of Dyfed whose hunt brings him into contact with Annwn’s hounds.