Cavall is attested within the corpus of medieval Welsh Arthurian narrative as one of Arthur's named animals associated with his hunting retinue. The name appears in Middle Welsh manuscripts of the romance Culhwch and Olwen and in the Mirabilia/Wonders of Britain appended to Historia Brittonum, where Cavall is connected to the great boar-hunts (notably those of Twrch Trwyth and Yskithyrwyn). The sources present Cavall as an individualized companion-animal whose actions in legendary hunts become etiologies for local marvels (for example, the pawprint in the stone at Carn Cabal). Later scholarly commentary discusses the name's similarity to Latin caballus (“horse”) and debates whether some manuscript readings or place-name elements suggest earlier or alternative classifications, but the narrative contexts supplied identify Cavall principally as a hound in Arthurian hunting scenes.
The primary sources supply no detailed physical description (color, size, or coat) for Cavall beyond relational statements identifying him as King Arthur's dog and favourite hunting hound. The most concrete corporeal detail in the tradition is not a bodily portrait but a physical trace: a pawprint impressed in a stone, which the Wonders of Britain account locates in a cairn called Carn Cabal (the stone is said to return to its mound by the following day if removed). Thus appearance in the sources is relational (position in Arthur's retinue) and indexical (a lasting pawprint in the landscape) rather than visual.
Cavall's principal attributed abilities and behaviors are exceptional hunting prowess and role-specific practices within Arthurian hunts: in Culhwch and Olwen he is described as Arthur's favourite dog and is credited with cornering—or in some formulations helping to slay—the boar Yskithyrwyn, and he takes part in the pursuit of Twrch Trwyth and its piglets. The Wonders of Britain account further presents Cavall as the agent whose paw impressed a stone, producing a local marvel (a stone that returns to its cairn if removed). No explicit supernatural faculties such as speech or shapeshifting are attested in the supplied texts; Cavall's distinction lies in extraordinary hunting capability and an etiological miracle tied to the landscape.
Abandinus
Abandinus is a locally attested Romano‑Celtic theonym known from a single inscribed bronze feather (votive object) dedicated at Godmanchester (the Roman fort Durovigutum) in Cambridgeshire. Scholars interpret him as a local god or male spirit tied to a specific place and possibly associated with a nearby spring or stream; this association is tentative and based on etymological readings of the name.
Abarta (Ábartach)
Abarta (also Ábartach) is a figure of Irish myth who, in surviving accounts, tricks Fionn mac Cumhaill's warriors by giving them a supernatural grey horse that bears them into the Otherworld. Sources variably identify him as a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann or as a Fomorian; after the incident he is compelled to release the captured warriors and is refused entry to the Fianna.
Abcán (Abhcán)
Abcán (modern spelling Abhcán) is a named dwarf poet and musician of the Tuatha Dé Danann in Irish myth. He appears in a small number of narratives as a musician whose art has soporific power and as the ferryman who brings the goddess Ruad from the Otherworld to the human world.
Abhean
Abhean is a named poet of the Tuatha Dé Danann in medieval Irish literature, described as a poet in particular of Lugh and recorded as having been killed by Óengus before Midir in a poem by Fland Mainistreach preserved in the Lebor Gabála Érenn.
Abnoba
Abnoba is a Gaulish theonym and toponym attested in Roman-era sources and inscriptions: a localized deity associated with woods, springs and the sources of rivers (notably the Danube) and simultaneously the name applied to a mountain or mountain range in the Black Forest/Baar/Odenwald region. Roman altars equate her with Diana, reflecting syncretic cult practice in frontier provinces.
Accolon
Accolon is a mortal knight of the Arthurian court, presented in the Post-Vulgate Merlin tradition and Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur as Morgan le Fay's paramour and instrument in a plot to supplant King Arthur; his tale centers on enchanted weapons (Excalibur and its scabbard), love-manipulation, and a tragic duel with Arthur.
Achall
Achall is an eponymous mortal woman in the Ulster Cycle of early Irish literature whose grief-induced death is given as the origin of the hill-name Achall (identified with the modern Hill of Skryne). She appears as a genealogical and etiological figure tied to Tara and later legendary events at the hill, rather than as a recurring supernatural agent.
Achtland
Achtland is a figure from Irish tradition who, according to the surviving account, was a mortal woman famed for rejecting mortal suitors who married a member of the Tuatha Dé Danann and crossed into the síde to become immortal as his wife.
Adar Llwch Gwin
Legendary large, intelligent birds from Welsh tradition said to understand human speech and obey their master's commands; best known for tearing their master Drudwas ap Tryffin to pieces when bound by a literal order in an Arthurian battle narrative. The term later came to be applied to raptors and metaphorically to brave men in medieval Welsh poetry.
Adar Rhiannon
Adar Rhiannon ('birds of Rhiannon') are a set of three magical birds in medieval Welsh narrative (the Mabinogi) whose song can 'wake the dead and lull the living to sleep.' They appear as otherworldly song‑beings tied to the figure Rhiannon and function within tales as providers of enchanted music that sustains and consoles characters.
Aderyn y Corff
Aderyn y Corff (literally 'bird of the corpse') is a bird-like death-porter in Welsh folklore said to call outside the door of a person about to die. Described as an avian portent that may lack feathers or wings and as existing on another plane when not manifesting, it is treated in Welsh ghost lore and sometimes naturalized as a screech owl in modern accounts.
Adhene
A class of Manx fairies (Cloan ny moyrn) described in Isle of Man tradition as a social people of beings said to be "fallen angels cast from heaven but too good for hell," who interact with human livelihoods and families, sometimes benevolent but often mischievous.
Community Record
- [1]Culhwch and Olwen (Middle Welsh romance). Culhwch and Olwen; Middle Welsh romance (textual tradition citing named hounds and Arthurian hunts, including Cavall's role in hunting Yskithyrwyn and Twrch Trwyth).literary
- [2]Historia Brittonum — Mirabilia (Wonders of Britain). Mirabilia (Wonders of Britain) appended to Historia Brittonum; contains the account of the pawprint in the stone (Carn Cabal) impressed by Cabal, Arthur's dog, and the marvel of the stone returning to its mound.literary
- [3]Wikipedia: Cavall. Summary article compiling attestations of Cavall/Cafall (attested Middle Welsh forms, Latinized variants, role as Arthur's dog in hunt for Twrch Trwyth, and mention of the Carn Cabal pawprint).wiki
- [4]Etymological and scholarly commentary (Bromwich; R. J. Thomas). Secondary scholarly notes summarized in reference works: R. J. Thomas (1936) linking the name to Latin caballus 'horse' and Bromwich noting the ambiguity in the element carn and suggesting that the name may have been associated with a horse in some readings; used to contextualize etymological debate.other