Wild Hunt

The Wild Hunt is a folklore motif occurring across various northern, western and eastern European societies, appearing in the religions of the Germanics, Celts, and Slavs (motif E501 per Thompson). Wild Hunts typically involve a chase led by a mythological figure escorted by a ghostly or supernatural group of hunters engaged in pursuit. The leader of the hunt is often a named figure associated with Odin in Germanic legends, but may variously be a historical or legendary figure like Theodoric the Great, the Danish king Valdemar Atterdag, the dragon slayer Sigurd, the psychopomp of Welsh mythology Gwyn ap Nudd, biblical figures such as Herod, Cain, Gabriel, or the Devil, or an unidentified lost soul. The hunters are generally the souls of the dead or ghostly dogs, sometimes fairies, valkyries, or elves. Seeing the Wild Hunt was thought to forebode some catastrophe such as war or plague, or at best the death of the one who witnessed it. People encountering the Hunt might also be abducted to the underworld or the fairy kingdom. In some instances, it was also believed that people's spirits could be pulled away during their sleep to join the cavalcade. The concept was developed by Jacob Grimm in his Deutsche Mythologie (1835) on the basis of comparative mythology. Grimm believed that a group of stories represented a folkloristic survival of Germanic paganism, but this is disputed by other, modern scholars who claim that comparable folk myths are found throughout Northern Europe, Western Europe, and Central Europe. Lotte Motz noted, however, that the motif abounds "above all in areas of Germanic speech." Grimm popularised the term Wilde Jagd ('Wild Hunt') for the phenomenon.

Comparative evidence and terminology

Germanic tradition Based on the comparative study of the German folklore, the phenomenon is often referred to as Wilde Jagd (German for 'Wild Hunt/chase') or Wütendes Heer ('Raging Host/army'). The term 'Hunt' was more common in northern Germany and 'Host' was more used in Southern Germany; with however no clear dividing line since parts of southern Germany know the 'Hunt', and parts of the north know the 'Host'. It was also known in Germany as the Wildes Heer ('Wild Army'), its leader was given various identities, including Wodan (or "Woden"), Knecht Ruprecht (compare Krampus), Berchtold (or Berchta), and Holda (or "Holle"). The Wild Hunt is also known from post-medieval folklore. In England, it was known as Herlaþing (Old English for 'Herla's assembly'), Woden's Hunt, Herod's Hunt, Cain's Hunt, the Devil's Dandy Dogs (in Cornwall), Gabriel's Hounds (in northern England), and Ghost Riders (in North America). In Scandinavia, the Wild Hunt is known as Oskoreia (commonly interpreted as 'The Asgard Ride'), and as Oensjægeren ('Odin's Hunters'). The names Åsgårdsrei ('Asgard Ride' as attested in parts of Trøndelag), Odens jakt and Vilda jakten (Swedish for 'the hunt of Odin' and 'wild hunt') are also attested. At the very front of Oskoreia rides Guro Rysserova ('Gudrun Horsetail'), often called Guro Åsgard, who is "big and horrid, her horse black and called Skokse". There is disagreement about the etymology of the word oskorei. The first element has several proposed sources: Åsgård ('Asgard'), oska ('thunder'), or Old Norse ǫskurligr ('dreadful'). The hypothetical Ásgoðreið ('Æsir God Ride') was also once proposed. Only the second element, rei ('ride') from Old Norse reið, is uncontroversial. The word was popularly perceived to be connected to Asgard, as seen in the folk ballad of Sigurd Svein, who is taken to Asgard by Oskoreia and Guro Rysserova. In the Netherlands and Flanders (in northern Belgium), the Wild Hunt is known as the Buckriders (Dutch: Bokkenrijders) and was used by gangs of highwaymen for their advantage in the 18th century.

Europe In Welsh folklore, Gwyn ap Nudd was depicted as a wild huntsman riding a demon horse who hunts souls at night along with a pack of white-bodied and red-eared "dogs of hell". In Arthurian legends, he is the king of the underworld who makes sure that the imprisoned devils do not destroy human souls. A comparable Welsh folk myth is known as Cŵn Annwn (Welsh: "hounds of Annwn"). In France, the "Host" was known in Latin sources as Familia Hellequini and in Old French as Maisnie Hellequin (the "household or retinue of Hellequin"). The Old French name Hellequin was probably borrowed from Middle English Herla king (Old English *Her(e)la-cyning) by the Romance-speaking Norman invaders of Britain. Other similar figures appear in the French folklore, such as Le Grand-Veneur, a hunter who chased with dogs in the forest of Fontainebleau, and a Poitou tradition where a hunter who has faulted by hunting on Sunday is condemned to redeem himself by hunting during the night, along with its French Canadian version the Chasse-galerie. Among West Slavs, it is known as divoký hon or štvaní (Czech for "wild hunt", "baiting"), dzëwô/dzëkô jachta (Kashubian for "wild hunt"), Dziki Gon or Dziki Łów (Polish). It is also known among the Sorbs and among the South Slavic Slovenes Divja Jaga (Slovene for "the wild hunting party" or "wild hunt"). However, scholars of Slavic folklore have noted it is a motif of foreign, specifically German(ic), origin. In Belarusian, it is called Дзiкае Паляванне ("wild hunt"). As Belarus used to be part of Poland, the motif's presence likely came from there as an intermediary. In Italy, it is called Caccia Morta ("Dead Hunt"), Caccia infernale ("infernal hunt") or Caccia selvaggia ("Wild Hunt"). In Spain this myth is documented at least since the 13th century, under the name hueste antigua ("Old army"), today estantigua. In Galician it is known as Estantiga (from Hoste Antiga "the old army"), Compaña and Santa Compaña ("troop, company"); Güestia in Asturias; Hueste de Ánimas ("troop of ghosts") in León; and Hueste de Guerra ("war company") or Cortejo de Gente de Muerte ("deadly retinue") in Extremadura.

Historiography

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