Definitions for annwfn
annwfn

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  Mallolwch

  Though ‘Preiddeu Annwn’ is the name given to poem No. XXX in Llyfyr Taliesin the spelling given in Stanza II of that poem is annwfyn, not Annwn. Some other spelling variations are annwvyn and annwfn.
  
  These variations in early spellings of the name can be explained by the fact that the word is written phonetically by a scribe listening to a narration, and when recording phonetically no spelling rules existed.
  
  In a Mabinogi legend Arawn was king of the realm of Annwfyn. The legend originated in Ireland.
  
  Annwfyn is the composite of three Irish words written phonetically. If broken into its component parts, these components are ann/wf/yn. The corresponding Irish words are ‘an ubh éin’, and they mean “the bird-egg”. [Note: ‘An’ has the sound ‘un’. ‘Ubh’ can be written phonetically in Welsh as either wf or wv. ‘Éin’ has the approximate sound ‘ay-een’.] Hence the “land of ann/wf/yn” means “the land of the bird-egg”.
  
  
  
  The bird-egg reference is to a very large still extant celebrated egg-like prehistoric granite stone ornamented with La Tène markings of the era 250BC-150BC, and known as “The Castlestrange egg-stone” (photo accessible on the Internet). Its exact original location is not known, but its approximate original location is given by a now defunct place-name in north-east Co. Galway, written in English in 1641 as Bellagarthaterriffe. This is the phonetic rendering of Bealach Fhearta Tír Uibhe meaning “The road to the tumulus in the land of the egg”. A nearby barrow grave in land called Cill na Rí (= ‘the cemetery of the kings’) is extant, and all lie within two miles of a prehistoric royal site – a huge enclosed circular fortress, the ruins (fosse and ramparts) of which are still extant and which correspond topographically and in other ways to those of the ‘Caer Sidi’ of Welsh mythology. The 'land of Annwfyn' is the region/realm which surrounded this egg-stone. more »

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