be joined to the body, not even the fairy doctors could sever it from the body again.
B. Other World.
This first part of the first Branch had originally to account for Pwyll's connection with Annwvn. This association of Pwyll with Annwvn is mentioned also in the fourth Branch of Mabinogi (Math vab Mathonwy), where Pwyll gets pigs as a present from the Other World (B.B. fo. 752, W.B. 191: Moch y gelwir weithon. "Pwy bieivynt wy?" Pryderi vab Pwyll, yd anvonet idaw o Annwn, y gau Arawn vrenhin Annwvn).
Pwyll's voyage to Annwvn belongs to the category of Other-World voyages (Ir. eachtra). These voyages are often of a friendly character, but sometimes they take the form of a conquest of the Other World. Help given by mortals to the King of the Other World is a frequent motive;[1] in the Irish saga literature that of Cúchulainn (in Serglige Conculaind) is the most typical. Cúchulainn helps Labraid Luath lám ar claideb, the King of Mag Mell, against his enemies, who belong also to the inhabitants of the Other World. In modern Irish folk-tales we find a similar motive: a mortal man is requested by the sídheógai to help them in their match against other sídheógai, or he is to assist them in kidnapping the King of France's daughter.
From these later parallels we may argue that there was a belief that a human being is able to vanquish the fairy people, etc., and this doctrine may be the real reason why Arawn requests Pwyll to fight for him against Havgan.
Now, there might be another question: are the Irish sídheógai identical with the inhabitants of Annwvn, and what is Annwvn? There are scholars who accept two Other Worlds, i.e. "the Land of the Dead" and
- ↑ Cf. A. C. L. Brown, Harvard University Studies and Notes in Literature and Philology, viii. 41.
