In medieval Irish and Welsh literature there is a world parallel to the human one, close by and yet out of reach. This is the Otherworld: a realm of beauty, music and plenty, where time flows differently and where powerful beings live, sometimes benevolent, sometimes dangerous. It is not an afterlife of the dead in the Christian sense, but a dimension that opens in certain places and at certain times. Knowing its forms helps us understand one of the richest themes of the Celtic imagination.
The sídhe: the Otherworld beneath the earth
According to the Irish tales of the mythical invasions of the island, the divine people of the Tuatha Dé Danann, defeated by the Sons of Míl, ancestors of the Irish, did not vanish. They withdrew beneath the earth, into the mounds and hills called síd (plural síde, in modern spelling sídhe). Ever since, the «people of the mounds», aes síde, have inhabited a hidden world beside that of humans.
Many of these mounds are real prehistoric monuments. The most famous is Brú na Bóinne, the Newgrange complex in the Boyne valley, which in medieval tradition is the dwelling of the god Óengus. Myth thus gave new meaning to far older structures whose original purpose had been forgotten.
The islands beyond the sea
Alongside the underground world, Irish tradition knows an Otherworld lying beyond the western sea, made up of wondrous islands. It has many names:
- Tír na nÓg, the Land of the Young;
- Mag Mell, the Plain of Delight;
- Emain Ablach, the Land of Apples;
- Tír Tairngire, the Land of Promise.
The voyage of Bran
The tale Immram Brain, «The Voyage of Bran», opens with a mysterious music that lulls Bran son of Febal to sleep. On waking he finds beside him a silver branch with white blossoms. A woman of the Otherworld appears and sings of the wonders of the land beyond the sea, where there is neither grief nor death. Bran sets out with his companions, visits the Island of Joy and the Island of Women, where they stay for what seems a year.
When they decide to return, they are warned not to touch the land of Ireland. One of the companions, Nechtan, leaps ashore and at once turns to ashes, as though centuries had passed. Bran tells his story from the ship, and then sails away for ever.
The summons of Connla
In the tale Echtrae Conli, «The Adventure of Connla», a woman invisible to everyone except Connla, a king's son, invites him to follow her to the land of the living. The king's druid chants against her and drives her away, but she throws Connla an apple. For a month the young man eats nothing else, and the apple is never used up. In the end Connla goes with the woman in a crystal boat and disappears.
| Tale | Sign of the summons | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Immram Brain | silver branch and music | voyage to the islands, no return possible |
| Echtrae Conli | inexhaustible apple | final departure in a crystal boat |
| Tales of the sídhe | opening of the mounds | dangerous encounters or gifts |
Annwn: the Welsh Otherworld
Pwyll, king of Annwn
The first branch of the Mabinogi tells of Pwyll, prince of Dyfed, who while hunting offends Arawn, king of Annwn, the Welsh Otherworld. To make amends, Pwyll agrees to exchange appearance and kingdom with Arawn for a year and to face Arawn's enemy Hafgan in his place. Pwyll rules Annwn justly and, though he sleeps each night beside Arawn's queen, never touches her. At the end of the year he defeats Hafgan with a single blow, as he had been instructed. From then on he is called Pen Annwn, «Head of Annwn».
Here the Otherworld is a kingdom with kings, courts and wars, reached through an encounter in the forest.
Arthur's expedition
An ancient Welsh poem preserved in the Book of Taliesin, Preiddeu Annwfn, «The Spoils of Annwn», describes an expedition by Arthur into the Otherworld to win a cauldron, that of the lord of Annwn, rimmed with pearls and warmed by the breath of nine maidens. The refrain repeats that three shiploads of the ship Prydwen set out and only seven men returned. The poem is obscure and difficult, but it shows Annwn as a place of treasures and deadly trials.
Thresholds
The Otherworld opens in places and moments of boundary: mounds, waters, islands, mist, forest. In the calendar, the night of Samhain was the moment above all when the sídhe opened and the two worlds communicated. Many Irish tales set encounters and wonders on that night.
A symbolic reading
The Celtic Otherworld is not a place far away in space, but very near and hidden. Time flows differently there, and whoever enters does not return the same, or does not return at all. In symbolic language it represents the deep dimension of experience, reached by crossing a threshold: a silence, a dream, a music. Bran's silver branch remains one of the most beautiful images of the inner call.
In short
- In Irish tradition the Tuatha Dé Danann withdrew into the mounds, the sídhe, after their defeat.
- The Otherworld is also an archipelago of blessed isles beyond the western sea.
- Bran and Connla are summoned by Otherworld women with a silver branch and an apple.
- In the Mabinogi, Pwyll reigns for a year over Annwn in place of King Arawn.
- The Otherworld opens in places and times of threshold, such as the night of Samhain.
