Gwragedd Annwn is a spirit of Welsh tradition.
Lake fairies of the mountain lakes who marry mortals and bring knowledge of healing.
The Gwragedd Annwn are the lake fairies of the Welsh Otherworld, the women of Annwn. They rise from mountain lakes, marry mortals and bring wealth and knowledge of healing.
The most famous legend: the Lady of Llyn y Fan Fach, whose descendants became the Physicians of Myddfai.
Type: benevolent lake fairies
Origin: Welsh legend cycle, Tylwyth Teg
Texts: Sikes 1880, Rhys 1901
Period: 19th/20th century
Appearance: women dressed in green, without a fish tail
Recorded in writing in the 19th and early 20th century by Sikes, Rhys and Davies.
Wales, especially the mountain lakes Llyn y Fan Fach and Llyn Barfog.
Well documented: the collections of Sikes, Rhys and Davies, together with the medical history of Myddfai.
Welsh: Gwragedd Annwn means women of Annwn, from gwraig, woman, and Annwn, the Otherworld.
Appearance
Beautiful fairies dressed in green, not sea creatures but lake fairies without a fish tail.
Effect
Benevolent, they marry, bring wealth and knowledge of healing. Breaking the taboo withdraws their gifts and the wife.
The key features of the lake fairies at a glance.
Welsh fairy folk, the Tylwyth Teg.
Mortal men at mountain lakes.
Beautiful women dressed in green, without a fish tail.
A farmer falls in love with a woman who rises from the lake. She agrees to marry him, provided he never strikes her three times without cause, and brings white cattle with her. After three blows she returns to the lake with the cattle and later initiates her son Rhiwallon into the art of healing.
The legend of the Lady of Llyn y Fan Fach is one of the best-known Welsh legends, present in culture and tourism: a type of the bride with a marriage taboo, benevolent, not demonic.
No protection is needed; the beings are benevolent. The bond holds as long as the man respects the prohibition against three blows. An amulet is regarded as a sign of respect, mugwort ties in with their knowledge of healing, and holy water with the purity of the lake.
Are the Gwragedd Annwn mermaids?
No, they live in lakes, not in the sea, and have no fish tail.
Who were the Physicians of Myddfai?
Physicians whose knowledge of healing, according to legend, came from the lake fairy.
Further standard works in the bibliography.
As Gwragedd Annwn lake fairies, occasionally referred to in English as lady of the lake wales, they remain the mildest water beings of Celtic tradition: marriage and knowledge of healing instead of drowning.
Against its influence, cross-cultural tradition names these protective means:
Compare in the Protection Compass →Recommended protective means
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