Also called An Ankoù, the servant of death.
The tale
The Ankou is the servant of death in Breton folklore, a tall skeleton or gaunt man in a wide hat, carrying a scythe and driving a creaking cart. In each parish the last person to die in the year becomes the Ankou for the next, gathering the souls of the dead. Hearing his cart at night meant that someone would soon die. He appears carved on churches and ossuaries across Brittany.
When they are met
- Kalan Goañv (1 November)
- at funerals
Staying on their good side
- a candle for the dead
- a visit to a graveyard to tend graves
- speak the names of your dead
Honouring them, or keeping safe
- Visit the graves of your family and tend them.
- Reflect on mortality calmly, as the Breton ossuaries invite people to do.
What their tales teach
- facing death
- grief
- remembering the dead
Symbols
- the scythe
- the creaking cart
- the skeleton in a wide hat
Sources
- Le Braz, La Légende de la mort chez les Bretons armoricains
More Celtic folklore
- The Banshee The keening woman of the fairy mound
- Selkies The seal folk who come ashore
- The Púca The shape-shifter of November
- The Aos Sí The people of the fairy mounds
- The Kelpie The water horse of the lochs
- The Tylwyth Teg The Fair Family of Wales
- Leprechaun The solitary fairy shoemaker
- Clurichaun The fairy of the wine cellar