Many cultures have a version of “Death” or a “Grim Reaper,” the entity responsible for guiding the recently dead into the afterlife. Similar but distinct versions of death existed in the folklore of the British Isles, influenced by both Celtic and Christian traditions.
Dullahan – Irish Folklore
In Irish folklore, Dullahan is a headless rider on a black horse or a headless coachman carrying his head. When he drives his coach, it is pulled by six black horses, sometimes also headless. His head has a revolting appearance, decaying and with a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. The eyes are alive and dart around like flies. The coach is variously described as having a rumbling sound or being eerily silent. Some accounts suggest that the axle is made from a human spine, spokes from thigh bones, and two hollow skulls that act as lanterns.
He reportedly rides out of graveyards to the doorstep of a dying person. There are witness testimonies of people seeing the shadowy coach and then hearing of the death of a friend or neighbor the next morning. If someone tried to open the coach door who should not, they would be bathed in blood, an experience that could result in their death by shock.
Ankou – Breton Folklore
Ankou is a death spirit identified in Breton, Cornish, and Welsh folklore. Rather than being one figure, each community has its own Ankou, often believed to be either the first or the last person of the year to die, who then takes on the responsibility for the next 12 months.
Ankou appears as a person or skeleton wearing a black robe and a large hat, carrying a scythe, much like the modern representation of death. He, or she, rides a cart pulled by four black horses that he uses for collecting the dead. They are sometimes accompanied by two ghostly figures on foot. Ankou can also be seen simply as a shadow, suggesting that his presence is felt but is not firmly seen.
Gwyn ap Nudd – Welsh Folklore
In Welsh folklore, Gwyn ap Nudd is the ruler of the Welsh underworld, called Annwn. He is described as being a great warrior with a blackened face. The floor probably represented his status as dead. The Norse goddess of death Hel was often described as half white and half black, indicating her status as half living and half dead.
His status as a grim reaper is explored in the medieval poem The Dialogue of Gwyn ap Nudd and Gwyddno Garanhir. In the narrative, Gwyn returns from battle and recounts his role as a guardian of the dead on the battlefield, gathering up the souls of the fallen warriors such as Bran the Blessed, Meurig ap Carreian, Gwendoleu ap Ceidaw, and Llacheau ab Arthur. He is also described as skilled in combat and suggests that he is born from the heat of battle.
This role is also reflected in the tradition of the Wild Hunt, in which Gwyn leads a pack of supernatural hounds known as the Cwn Annwn to harvest human souls. This links Gwyn with the Norse god Odin, who also led the Wild Hunt. Odin was also a god of death, choosing the bravest fallen souls to live in his afterlife, Valhalla. It was generally not considered safe to be abroad during the wild hunt as anyone swept up in their procession would be taken to the underworld.
In later stories, he would be diminished, becoming the king of the Tylwyth Teg, or the “fair folk.” He appears in Arthurian legend sometimes as a helper and sometimes as an antagonist. For example, he helps the herp Culhwch hunt down a particularly fierce boar to win the hand of Olwen. He also helps Arthur to retrieve the blood of a witch. In another story, he gets involved in a blood feud, at one point killing a man and forcing his son to eat his heart. This results in him being cursed to battle his enemy every year on May Day until Judgment day, so the end of time.
Cu-Sith – Scottish Folklore
In Scottish folklore, we meet Cu-Sith, a mythical hound who is a harbinger of death and a guide to the underworld. He seems related to Cwn Annwn in Welsh tradition and Cu Sidhe in Irish. He lives in the clefts of rocks and roams the moors of the highlands. He is usually described as shaggy, dark green in color – which may be an indication of his chthonic nature, the Egyptian god of the underworld Osiris is also green – and being as large as a small cow. He usually hunts silently but sometimes chooses to let out three distinct barks that can be heard for miles.
Many cultures associate dogs with death. Hades has his dog, Cerberus, a monstrous three-headed hound who prevents the dead from leaving the underworld. He was matched by Garm, the guard dog of Hel in Norse mythology. In ancient Egypt, Anubis was the jackal god who guarded graveyards and helped the dead pass through the required trials to reach the afterlife.
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