Annwfn
Celtic (Welsh)
The Otherworld, ruled by the gray clad magician Arawn. The Otherworld was quite unlike other afterlifes because of its reciprocal relationship with the place we live. Philostrates of Tirana observed that the Celts mourned a birth and celebrated a death because a birth meant that a soul had died in the Otherworld and a death meant rebirth in that blessed place. When King Arthur died, bards confidently foretold his return from Annwfn (Avalon) based on their belief in this exchange of incarnations.
Once a year, the Celts believed, the Otherworld drew close enough to our own to allow its inhabitants to return to tease, torture, and wreak havoc on those among us who had wronged them. The feast known as Samhain marked this annual opening of the Otherworld for the repayment of grudges and became, in Christian times, our Halloween.
Lengs of the Otherworld include the tale of its Magic Cauldron, a pot that became the Christian Holy Grail. Heroes like Arthur and Cuchulain could travel to the Otherworld, live and adventure there for a bit, and then return. The Celts identifed many islands and continents as places that either were or led to the Otherworld. The nature of these places varied as traditions evolved: they could be anything from dark, frigid purgatories to the sunny shores of Spain. The Welsh identified Lundy Island as the place where souls went after death. The Irish thought it lay elsewhere, on an island they called =Tech Duinn, "the house of Donn".
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