The Welsh fairies ofthe underworld, whose entrance to the human world is by the lakes. Their king is Gwyn Ap Nud, and they are chiefly known to men through their maidens, the gwragen annwn, by their white or speckled cattle, the Gwartheg Y Llyn, and by their swift white hounds, the Cwn Annwn, who were sometimes seen with their fairy mistresses, but more often heard on summer nights in full cry after the souls of men who had died unassoiled and impenitent. The Lake Maidens made loving and docile wives until the taboo attached to them was violated; the Lake Cattle brought wealth and prosperity to any farmer who was lucky enough to keep one; but the hounds of the underworld betray the nature of these underwater people: they were the company of the dead, like the subjects of Fin Bheara in Ireland. In a story told by Pugh of Aberdovey and preserved by John Rhys, Gwyn ap Nud is called king of Annwn, but elsewhere Rhys calls Arawn, the friend of Pwyll of Dyfed, the undoubted king of the underworld. He is called so in the Mabinogion.

[Motif: F212]