Ankou

Ankou (Breton: /ɑːnkuː/ an Ankoù) is a personification of death in Breton mythology as well as in Cornish (an Ankow in Cornish), Welsh (yr Angau in Welsh) and Norman French folklore.

This character is reported by Anatole Le Braz, a 19th century writer and collector of legends. Here is what he wrote about the Ankou in his best-seller The Legend of Death:

There are many tales involving Ankou, who appears as a man or skeleton wearing a cloak and wielding a scythe and in some stories he is described as a shadow that looks and a scythe, often atop a cart for collecting the dead. He is said to wear a black robe with a large hat which conceals his face. According to some, he was the first child of Adam and Eve. Other versions have it that the Ankou is the first dead person of the year (though he is always depicted as adult, and male), charged with collecting the others' souls before he can go to the afterlife. He is said to drive a large, black coach pulled by four black horses; accompanied by two ghostly figures on foot.

One tale says that there were three drunk friends walking home one night, when they came across an old man on a rickety cart. Two of the men started shouting at the Ankou, and then throwing stones; when they broke the axle on his cart they ran off.

The third friend felt bad and, wanting to help the Ankou, found a branch to replace the broken axle, and then gave the Ankou his shoe-laces with which to tie it to the cart. The next morning, the two friends who were throwing stones at the Ankou were dead, while the one who stayed to help only had his hair turned white. He would never speak of how it happened.

Ankou is the king of the dead, and his subjects have their own particular paths along which their sacred processions move.

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Wikipedia