Category: Art

The Hound with the Serpent Tails

Leave a comment

I am a mystery
with one end in Thisworld
and one end in the Otherworld.

My tails lead down the long dark tunnels
from light to darkness
and for the lucky ones
back out to the light of day again.

What is my origin?
Was I born at midnight?
From what union?

From what spell?

Oh what has the cauldron
got to sing of my birth to those
who see me as the guardian
of the Gates of Hell?

This image of Dormach, the favourite hound of Gwyn ap Nudd, is based on an sketch of him drawn by a monk in The Black Book of Carmarthen in ‘The Conversation of Gwyn ap Nudd and Gwyddno Garanhir’. Here he is described as ‘sleek and fair’ and as having a red nose. This description is similar to the Hounds of Annwn in the First Branch of The Mabinogion who are ‘gleaming shining white’ with ‘red ears’.

It is unknown why Dormach is depicted with serpent’s tails. It is likely due to his Annuvian nature. Nudd/Nodens, the father of Gwyn, is associated with a battle between red and white dragons and there is a mural of sea serpents in his temple.

In my novel-in-progress, In the Deep, I reimagine how Dormach came to be ‘the Hound with the Serpent Tails’. This story and other exclusive excerpts are available to my patrons on Patreon HERE.

Ogddu ‘Black Cave’ – Devotional Art

1 Comment

Oggdu ‘Black Cave’ is not known from existing Brythonic myths or folklore but has come through to be me as the mother of Orwen, ‘Very White’, who was the mother of Orddu, ‘Very Black’. They were a lineage of ‘witches’ who lived in a cave in Pennant Gofid, in the north, and had associations with Gwyn ap Nudd, a King of Annwn.

Ogddu first came through as a name, then as a voice, now finally in an image. I wasn’t sure how she was going to look until I started drawing. I’m not sure how she lost her eye(s). A story waiting to be told or a mystery that will never be known?

Orwen ‘Very White’ – Devotional Art

Leave a comment

This is a sketch of Orwen ‘Very White’. We know nothing about her from Welsh mythology aside from her being the mother of Orddu ‘Very Black’, a witch who lived in a cave in Pennant Gofid ‘the Valley of Grief’ in the north, and was killed by Arthur. The image and poem below are based on my personal gnosis.

Mine is the wisdom of the owl
who takes flight at dusk,
crepuscular,
like the crescent
of the moon beginning to wax.

In the interstices between new and full,
dark and light, by the half-light you might meet me.

Although they call me ‘Very White’ you don’t want to see me
fully exposed by the white-pitched revealing light of the full moon.

By the full moon’s light I once caught a snowy white hare
and took her to be sacrificed in the Castle of Night
but somewhere up there in the heavens
she escaped me and I found
in her stead
within my owl feather cloak
a piece of dead star and it has since
then lit the orb on top of my staff with dead starlight.

They say now that I might be seen at dusk or dawn
on the wing or as a light on the marsh
too white to behold by the black of night or daylight.

Orddu ‘Very Black’ – Devotional Art

2 Comments

As part of the process of introducing Orddu and the Witches of Annwn into my daily practice as spiritual ancestors I am beginning to produce some devotional art for them as well as writing them poems and telling their stories. Here I am trying to capture Orddu’s characteristics as a ‘very black witch’ and ‘hag’ who battles against Arthur as presented in the original tale without inclining towards more traditional caricatures. I aimed to create the sense of harsh formidable and dark figure who was esteemed as a warrior woman and prophet. As you can probably tell I have no formal training as an artist just a history of doodling characters from writings of my own and others from a very young age.

My Lady Verdant

2 Comments

I shall follow
the threads of her hair –
her hair is verdant.

I shall follow
the bats to her lair –
my Lady Verdant.

I shall follow
the ancient pathways
to Peneverdant.

I shall meet her 
there ivies in my hair –
my Lady Verdant.

*A poem and image for Anrhuna, the goddess who I believe to be the mother of my patron god, Gwyn ap Nudd, appearing in her localised form as the Lady of Peneverdant.

She Spreads Her Mossy Cloak

2 Comments

This is an image of Anrhuna in her guise as ‘the Mother of the Moss’ through which she has been speaking strongly to me over the past year. Anrhuna is not known from Brythonic lore but has presented herself to me and a couple of other awenyddion as an ancient goddess, who is the mother of my patron god, Gwyn ap Nudd. It’s my intuition that she was the driving force behind the earliest colonisation of the land by mosses.