The Spoils of Annwfn is a brief but puzzling poem
in Welsh, preserved in the 13th-century book of
TALIESIN. Though structurally similar to other
poems in that manuscript, it was certainly not
written by the sixth-century bard Taliesin. Most
likely the poem was composed between the eighth
and 12th centuries, probably around the year 900.
The Spoils of Annwfn is interesting chiefly as an
early text dealing with the legend of King ARTHUR.
In the poem Arthur (not yet called king) leads
his men in a raid on Annwfn, the mythic dwelling
place of the Celtic deities. Annwfn is depicted here
as both an underworld city and an island in the sea
to which Arthur and his host must travel in his ship
Prydwen (“Fairface”). Arthur’s goal is to obtain a
magic cauldron in the possession of the lord of Annwfn.
The cauldron is guarded by nine maidens,
and it has the property of measuring the courage of
warriors: A coward could not cook with it.
The expedition proves to be dangerous and
costly for Arthur—only seven men return alive, including
the poem’s narrator, who uses that fact as a
kind of refrain after each section of the poem, repeating
“apart from seven, none came back.”With
each refrain, the narrator also calls Annwfn by another
name: “Faerie,” for example, or “Fortress of
Revelry.” These various epithets have led to some
confusion in the poem, since some readers have
taken them to refer to different destinations, and
suggested that the poem is about several different
journeys, from each of which only seven warriors
returned. This seems less likely than the poet’s
using various epithets for the underworld. But the
difference in interpretation does illustrate the difficulty
of understanding or translating this poem.
Other difficulties arise from the many allusions to
traditional Celtic legend that are incomprehensible
to modern readers.
Scholars have recognized similarities between
this poem and another Welsh text, the tale of Branwen
in the second branch of the MABINOGION.
Though that text does not involve Arthur and describes
a voyage to Ireland rather than the underworld,
it does concern a magic cauldron that can
raise the dead. It is possible that these magic Celtic
vessels are early versions of what was to become
the legend of the HOLY GRAIL in later texts.
Bibliography
Breeze, Andrew. Medieval Welsh Literature. Dublin:
Four Courts Press, 1997.
Loomis, Roger Sherman. The Development of
Arthurian Romance. New York: Norton, 1963.
Williams, Gwyn. An Introduction to Welsh Poetry.
1954. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press,
1970.