Crossword-Solution: ANKOU 5 letters, 1 clue 🏆 scrabble score: 9

See also Hallowe'en All Saints', 4, 29-30, 110, 118, 126 All Souls', 4, 30-31, 98-99, 106, 110, 113, 118, 142, 144 Alphabet, 96, 160, 166-167 America, 149, 153 Anaxarete, 24 Angus, 36, 38-39 Ankou, 109, 115 Apollo, 1, 129, 134 Apparitions.

The people of this district retain all the old Breton superstitions; they believe in the Car of Death, drawn by six black horses, driven by the "Ankou," or Phantom of Death, with an iron whip.

The Ankou herself--for the dread death-spirit of Brittany is probably female--is usually represented as a skeleton.

Anatole le Braz has elaborated a study of the whole question in his book on the legend of death in Brittany,[38] and it is probable that the Ankou is a survival of the death-goddess of the prehistoric dolmen-builders of Brittany.

MacCulloch[39] considers the Ankou to be a reminiscence of the Celtic god of death, who watches over all things beyond the grave and carries off the dead to his kingdom, but greatly influenced by medieval ideas of 'Death the skeleton.' In some Breton churches a little model or statuette of the Ankou is to be seen, and this is nothing more nor less than a cleverly fashioned skeleton.