Hafgan

A being who can only be killed by someone WITHHOLDING a blow is one of the neatest inversions in the literature, and the corpus held the two men who arrange it and not him. It is also this programme's recurring finding in the smallest possible compass: one record, one absence, and the entire First Branch turns on it.

Domains

• kingship of annwn

Relations

• rival of: ArawnNon-symmetric rather than the symmetric `rival`, so nothing is written onto the pre-existing Arawn record — which the corpus holds as a king of Annwn with nobody to be king against.Reference treatment of Hafgan as the main rival of Arawn, the other king of Annwn. (secondary)
• slain by: Pwyll Pendefig DyfedNon-symmetric, so nothing is written onto the pre-existing Pwyll record. The corpus held both parties to the year-long exchange and not the man the exchange exists to kill.Reference treatment of Pwyll in Arawn's guise striking Hafgan once and refusing the second stroke. (secondary)

Sources

• Hafgan is the second king of Annwn and Arawn's rival, unkillable because a second stroke heals him, and killed by Pwyll in Arawn's shape with one stroke and a refusal.: Reference treatments of Hafgan, of Arawn and of the First Branch of the Mabinogi. (secondary)