The Transformations of Gwyn ap Nudd

Characteristics of characters used over time in prose and poetry of course change as the stories are repeated. These transformations multiply when the oral and literary traditions affect one another, and the character of Gwyn ap Nudd (king of Annwn and king of the Tylwyth Teg) falls into this category. Gwyn is found in the prose and poetry traditions of the medieval period (Bartrum 1993: 351; Foster 1953; Roberts 1980/81; Rüdiger 2012). The adoption of this figure by the neo-Pagan movement in the first half of the last century is a reflection of beliefs that interpret medieval Welsh characters as ancient gods or goddesses (Hutton 1999: 192; Rüdiger 2012: 68-77). Yet it is the nineteenth-century Welsh scholars who are largely responsible for inducing this development, which gives characters a new meaning. This essay explores these developments in the character of Gwyn ap Nudd, from the oldest texts, through the work of John Rhŷs, to Robert Graves and Gerald Gardner and the neo-Pagans.