Definitions for annwn
annwn

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  Mallolwch

  In a Mabinogi legend Arawn was king of the realm of Annwfyn. The legends called ‘The Four Branches of the Mabinogi’ originated in the west of Ireland. They were taken in manuscript form at sword-point by marauding Welsh Normans (close relatives of Rhys ap Gruffydd, later called Prince of Wales) from monks in an abbey in a manner described by the Middle Welsh poem Preiddeu Annwn. Taken to Wales in the last quarter of the 12th century, they were translated to Welsh, greatly redacted and embedded into the Welsh landscape for the enhancement of that principality.
  
  
  
  The abbey from which the legends were taken was sited within a great circular prehistoric fortress, the ruins of its fosse and ramparts being still extant. It corresponds with the royal palace Regia Altera in Ptolemy’s map of Hibernia, and has also been called 'Caer Sidi'.
  
  The Middle Welsh versions of the legends contain many strange names not belonging to Wales – Annwfyn, Mabinogi, Arawn, Pryderi, Culhwch, etc. These are in fact phonetic renderings of the original gaelic names, comprised of two or more words fused together – a common feature of place-names in Ireland.
  
  
  
  ‘Annwfyn’ (alias Annwvyn, Annwfn, Annwn) is the fusion of three Irish words written phonetically. If broken into its component parts – e.g. 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’, denote by ‘yn’ in Middle Welsh.]
  
  Hence the “land of ann/wf/yn” means “the land of ‘an ubh éin’” or ‘the land of the bird-egg”.
  
  
  
  The bird-egg reference is to an extant, prehistoric, celebrated, egg-like 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 has been identified. This was close to the site of Regia Altera. Hence, 'the land of the bird-egg' was the realm ruled by the king at Regia Altera. more »

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