Celtic Otherworld

[1] In Irish Immrama ("voyage") tales, a beautiful young Otherworld woman often approaches the hero and sings to him of this happy land.

Their journey may be in a boat of glass, in a chariot, or on horseback (usually on a white horse, as in the case of the goddess Niamh of the Golden Hair).

In the tale Baile in Scáil ("the phantom's ecstatic vision"), Conn of the Hundred Battles visits an Otherworld hall, where the god Lugh legitimizes his kingship and that of his successors.

[7] It was believed that the souls of the dead travelled to Tech Duinn; perhaps to remain there forever, or perhaps before reaching their final destination in the Otherworld,[8] or before being reincarnated.

Tech Duinn is commonly identified with Bull Rock, an islet off the west coast of Ireland which resembles a portal tomb.

The Welsh tale of Branwen, daughter of Llyr ends with the survivors of the great battle feasting in the Otherworld, in the presence of the severed head of Bran the Blessed, having forgotten all their suffering and sorrow, and having become unaware of the passage of time.

The Gauls divided the universe into three parts: Albios ("heaven, white-world, upper-world"), Bitu ("world of the living beings"), and Dubnos ("hell, lower-world, black-world").

[13];[14];[15] According to Lucan, the Gaulish druids believed that the soul went to an Otherworld, which he calls by the Latin name Orbis alius, before being reincarnated.

The Continental Celtic myths told that once the souls of the dead had left their bodies, they traveled to the northwest coast of Gaul and took a boat toward Britain.

There are still remains of those beliefs in the folklore of Brittany, where the name Bag an Noz is used to denote those ships who carry the dead to their goal: Anatole Le Braz describes in his book La légende de la mort chez les Bretons armoricains the existence of souls' processions which make their way toward coastal places like Laoual, to start their last travel from there.

The castro of Altamira is said to hide an enormous underground realm which is ruled by a royal couple, and whose entrance is found some place on the hill.

In Butcher's The Dresden Files, most supernatural beings come from another plane of existence called the "Nevernever," including the Sidhe (inspired by the Aos Sí) and Tuatha Dé Danann.