A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
In the Pwyll passage quoted by Sikes, the prince finds an unfamiliar pack bringing down a stag. Its dazzling white bodies and red ears mark a striking difference from his own dogs. The hounds belong to Arawn, ruler of Annwn, and the encounter begins a relationship between courts. Their appearance there is part of a narrated otherworld hunt, not simply a later Christian image of punitive hell-hounds.
Sikes also collects invisible dogs heard hunting through the air. Their calls become quieter as they approach and louder as they recede, sometimes accompanied by a deeper hound's voice. Funeral routes are linked with their passage, yet one quoted authority says they do not directly harm people or livestock. The same collector offers broad theories of shared ancestry with other mythologies; those speculative comparisons are separate from the particular Welsh accounts.
Origins & earliest records
The medieval Pwyll narrative is preserved within the Welsh Mabinogi manuscript tradition, while Sikes's selected 1880 collection documents later sky-hound accounts and quotes an earlier English rendering. This profile keeps those witnesses chronologically distinct. The surviving manuscripts and printed collections record stages of transmission rather than a recoverable first oral telling of the hounds.
Records & interpretation
The Pwyll description is literary evidence for the white-and-red hunting pack; the later narratives are evidence for audible funeral portents. They do not demonstrate a zoological species or establish that every reported spectral dog is the same being. Sikes himself distinguishes the airborne pack from the roadside Gwyllgi, despite their overlapping canine imagery.
In the literature
“the farther off they are the louder is their cry.”
Book II, chapter VIII; printed p. 233
The reported pack’s voices reverse the normal relation between loudness and distance.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions
Book II, chapter VIII, pp. 233–237. Selected inspected witness; bibliography is not exhaustive.
- 02
British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions — Book II, chapter VIII
London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1880. Original English compilation by Wirt Sikes; hosted Project Gutenberg transcription retains printed page anchors. Selected reports, quoted older authorities and the compiler’s comparative theories are distinguished.
Family & connections
A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
British Goblins: Welsh Folk-lore, Fairy Mythology, Legends and Traditions — Book II, chapter VIII
London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1880. Original English compilation by Wirt Sikes; hosted Project Gutenberg transcription retains printed page anchors. Selected reports, quoted older authorities and the compiler’s comparative theories are distinguished.
- Sikes describes airborne dogs whose calls grow quieter as they approach. Accounts credited to the Prophet Jones name Thomas Phillips and Thomas Andrew and connect the pack’s route with a later funeral.
Book II, chapter VIII; pp. 233, 235; sound and funeral-route reports
- The compiler quotes a translation of Pwyll in which Arawn’s hounds are white with red ears, citing Pughe in the Cambro-Briton; this literary quotation is separate from the later death-portent accounts.
Book II, chapter VIII; p. 234; Pwyll quotation credited to W. Owen Pughe
Selected complete episodes read in the hosted primary compilation. Earlier Jones, Iolo MSS., Pughe and Vale of Glamorgan citations are attributed as Sikes’s sources; their original editions have not been independently checked here. The compiler’s broad comparative etymologies are not adopted as established modern scholarship.
Encyclopedia background
An additional attributed reference, separate from the editorial profile above.
Read the open encyclopedia overview
In Welsh mythology and folklore, Cŵn Annwn (Welsh pronunciation: [kuːn ˈanʊn], "hounds of Annwn"), singular Ci Annwn (Welsh pronunciation: [kiː ˈanʊn]), were the spectral hounds of Annwn, the otherworld of Welsh myth. They were associated with a form of the Wild Hunt, presided over by either Arawn, king of Annwn in Pwyll Pendefig Dyfed (Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed), the First Branch of the Mabinogi and alluded to in Math fab Mathonwy (Math, the son of Mathonwy) the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi, or by Gwyn ap Nudd as the underworld king and king of the fair(y) folk is named in later medieval lore.
In Wales, they were associated with migrating geese, supposedly because their honking in the night is reminiscent of barking dogs.
Hunting grounds for the Cŵn Annwn are said to include the mountain of Cadair Idris.
According to Welsh folklore, their growling is loudest when they are at a distance, and as they draw nearer, it grows softer and softer. Their coming is generally seen as a death portent.
Text from Wikipedia contributors, “Cŵn Annwn”. CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted introduction; formatting changed. Retrieved 5 October 2026. The source article may have changed since retrieval.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary textSikes, British Goblins: Book II, chapter VIII, pp. 233–237Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
