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There is a strong hint
in the Irish and Welsh vernacular literature of a close
correlation between hunter/hunted and the divine world.
Dogs were used in
the hunt and this may have been the origin of their symbolic
link with death. Hunted animals were sometimes perceived as
messengers of the Otherworld powers, the means of bringing
living humans, either directly or indirectly, to the
underworld.
The hunted creature
itself may be enchanted or possess magical qualities: it may
be a transformed human or a god in zoomorphic form.
In 'Pwyll', Arawn,
king of the underworld, has a pack of shining white, red-eared
dogs, their colouring proclaiming their Otherworld
origins.
The Cwn Annwn or
Hounds of Annwn were death omens, described in an early Welsh
poem as small, speckled and greyish-red, chained and led by a
black-horned figure. These were ghost dogs which appeared only
at night to foretell death, sent from Annwn to seek out
corpses and human souls.
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Purchase
now on 
This piece
is strung with onyx and pearl but is also available with a
silver chain 1 1/2" diameter
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