Cŵn Annwn are Welsh supernatural hounds whose howls served as a death omen to those who heard it. Death portents are quite common in Welsh folklore. According to Delyth Badder and Mark Norman, authors of The Folklore of Wales: Ghosts, Cŵn Annwn “represent perhaps one of the oldest omens within Welsh tradition.”
The Welsh name for these hounds, Cŵn Annwn, relates back to the folklore as well. Cŵn (Welsh pronunciation: [kuːn]) translates to “dogs” or “hounds” in English. As for Annwn (Welsh pronunciation: [ˈanʊn]), it is the name for the Welsh otherworld. I have seen Annwn translated into English in a variety of ways including “Hell,” “the shadowland of Hades,” and “the underworld kingdom of the dead,” just to list a few. Therefore, Cŵn Annwn is often translated as “Dogs of Hell” or “Hell Hounds.” But as Annwn is a place name, it might be most apt to translate it simply as “Hounds of Annwn.” Delyth Badder and Mark Norman use this translation in their recently published book, and I shall follow suit.
What Did Cŵn Annwn Look Like?
Cŵn Annwn make their first appearance in written form in The Mabinogion, a collection of medieval Welsh tales. In the First Branch of the Mabinogi, Pwyll (Prince of Dyved) sees Cŵn Annwn while hunting with his own dogs. He later learns that they are the hounds of Arawn, a King of Annwn. In Charlotte Guest’s translation of the tale, Pwyll comes upon a stag overtaken by Cŵn Annwn, and the supernatural hounds are described in this manner:
Then looked he [Pwyll] at the colour of the dogs, staying not to look at the stag, and of all the hounds that he had seen in the world, he had never seen any that were like unto these. For their hair was of a brilliant shining white, and their ears were red; and as the whiteness of their bodies shone, so did the redness of their ears glisten.
The Unique Howl of Cŵn Annwn
In addition to their otherworldly appearance, the howl of Cŵn Annwn was not earthly either. Elias Owen offers several descriptions of their supernatural howl in Welsh Folk-Lore: A Collection of the Folk-Tales and Legends of North Wales. In one account, the howls are explained to be the opposite of what we would expect from earthly dogs: the closer they are to you, the quieter they howl, but if they are far away, they bellow great and loud. He quotes the Reverend Edmund Jones, who was a minister, but also wrote on the topic of apparitions and omens. Elias Owen writes:
The Rev. Edmund Jones … says that, “The nearer these dogs [Cŵn Annwn] are to a man, the less their voice is, and the farther the louder, and sometimes like the voice of a great hound, or like that of a blood hound, a deep hollow voice.”
Howling that is louder and more frightening the further the animal is away from you intrigues me. It reminds me of when my husband and I lived in a canyon area populated with coyotes. Most nights they would howl, and it felt like they were down the street, but in reality we were in a developed neighborhood, and they were in the canyon. Then one night, a lone coyote trotted down our street while I was watering some plants on the porch. He was silent and made not a single sound.
How the Howl of Cŵn Annwn Served as a Death Omen
But back to Elias Owen. He references an article in Y Brython, a Welsh newspaper, which aptly captures the fear that Cŵn Annwn’s howl would evoke. With internet magic, I was actually able to locate the exact article he is uses as his source. The article is in Welsh, so I believe this is his translation or a translated summary, but he doesn’t clearly say. Owen writes:
Their howl was something terrible to listen to, and it foretold death. At their approach all other dogs ceased barking, and fled before them in terror, taking refuge in their kennels. The birds of the air stopped singing in the groves when they heard their cry, and even the owl was silent when they were near. The laugh of the young, and the talk at the fireside were hushed when the dreadful howl of these Hell hounds was heard, and pale and trembling with fear the inmates crowded together for mutual protection. And what was worse than all, these dogs often foretold a death in some particular family in the neighbourhood where they appeared, and should a member of this family be in a publichouse, or other place of amusement, his fright would be so great that he could not move, believing that already had death seized upon some one in his house.
We learn from this passage that not only was the howl of Cŵn Annwn a frightening sound, it was also believed to be a death omen for someone in the family or neighborhood of the person hearing the howl. But Wirt Sikes in his book, British Goblins: Welsh Folk-Lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions, tries to reassure us. He explains, “Although terrible to hear, and certain portents of death, they [Cŵn Annwn] are in themselves harmless.” Phew! So it sounds like they did not bring the death which they foretold. They are but the messengers.
The folklore surrounding Cŵn Annwn embodies a rich tradition and includes variations on name, physical appearance, and howl. What I have included is not all-encompassing; rather, I have touched on the aspects of Cŵn Annwn that resonate with me and my writing.
Art credit (featured image): Dog Head by Julie de Graag (modified) via rawpixel, licensed under CC0
