Winternights (October 31) is getting closer. It is the time when the boundaries between the worlds are thinner and dead walk again the earth. If you live in Germanic lands, from England to France, from Scandinavia to Germany to Northern Italy, you might want to be very careful about where you go at night. From Winternights to Walpurgisnacht (April 30), with a peak during the Twelve Nights of Yule, you could make strange encounters indeed. You might escape with your life, and possibly rich, but you also might end up cursed forever, or maybe dead... So, choose your actions wisely when you meet the Wild Hunt!
It usually begins, in the best tradition, with a dark and stormy night. Amid the savage howling of the wind and the crashing of thunder, you hear a distant barking of hounds, the sound of the hunting horn and the shouts of hunters. If you dare, glance at the murky sky and you shall see them, a pack of black dogs and black horses, running wildly. Sometimes the Wild Hunt is more of a Furious Host: the spirits show signs of a violent death and often recently departed people are among them. The hooves and eyes of the beasts spurt fire; they may be eerily disfigured with only two or three legs. A mysterious cry rings out: "Wod! Wod!" And often a warning: "Midden im den Weg!" Throw yourself down in the middle of the road, then, if you care about your life and your soul, and let them pass over you. You might get away with the scary feeling of the icy feet of the hounds pattering across your back. But if you are quick-witted you could catch a glimpse of their leader, a figure that strikes awe and terror in your heart. Who is he? Can you resist long enough to find out?
The first description of a procession of ghosts was written by the English chronicler Ordericus Vitalis (1075 - c. 1142) in his Historia Ecclesiastica. In it the priest Wachlin describe a harrowing experience saying that he had seen the "familia Herlechini". Almost at the same time the Peterborough Chronicle, in its entry for 1127, describes the unearthly phenomenon as a hunt. Whether it is the host of the dead or the hunting party of the damned, two themes that keep interweaving in all Wild Hunt legends, there is usually a leader. In some traditions the Wild Hunter is not named. He is a fearsome spirit, maybe a headless rider, or riding a headless horse, preferably black. Or he might be a local legendary figure; a lord who mistreated his subjects or loved the hunt too much, as we shall see, and now follows forever a stag that he can never overtake. Sometimes he cruelly pursues a woman, human or supernatural. In one of the Decameron tales (5,8) by Boccaccio, a man killed by his mistress chases her naked through the wood every Friday, and his hounds tear her to pieces: then she comes back to life and the hunt begins again. Saint Walburga herself, on the night of April 30, is said to be pursued by malevolent spirits, and she leaves a gift of gold to those who give her shelter.
![furioushost[1].jpg](http://www.ancientworlds.net/aworlds_media/ibase_1/00/10/79/00107974_000.jpg)
The Wild Hunter can also be a typically Germanic legendary figure such as Dietrich von Bern, or a famous historical figure, variously identified with Charlemagne, Frederick Barbarossa, King Waldemar in Denmark, Theodoric the Great. (The latter, closely related to Dietrich von Bern, is the protagonist of a variety of grisly legends.) In these cases the leader can be doomed to this fate for his sins, but he can also have a positive connotation. The Hunt can begin with a clashing of weapons inside a mountain: it is the army of a legitimate king who comes back to save his country. A typically Arthurian theme; and in fact, one of the Wild Hunt leaders is none other than King Arthur himself. According to Gervase of Tilbury (died about 1228), in his Otia Imperialia, witnesses see him hunt in the full moon with all his retinue: narrantibus nemorum custodibus, quos forestarios vulgus nominat, se alternis diebus circa horam meridianam et in primo noctium conticinio sub plenilunio luna lucente saepissime videre militum copiam venantium et canum et cornuum strepitum, qui sciscitantibus se de societate et familia Arturi esse affirmant.
We begin to see a pattern. It is always a frightening story of blood and revenge or retribution. In the Christian version, the Wild Hunt carries with it a whiff of Purgatory, or even Hell. Its mysterious leader, when not a doomed earthly figure, is the Devil himself. Sometimes the host is made up not by damned souls, but by the children who died before baptism. In this case the meeting with the dead, if not surrounded by horrifying happenings, can have nuances of deep compassion: the wife who steps in to bind her dead husband's wounds, or the mother who meets her child begging her not to cry because he carries a heavy jug filled with her tears. Souls that have not done so much good as to win heaven, nor yet harm enough to merit hell, too, can be in the procession.
But this legend is much more ancient than Christianity. One version, diffused in Lower Saxony and Westphalia, is especially intriguing. It tells of a huntsman fanatically and blasphemously devoted to this sport - hunting on a Sunday, or declaring that he'd rather have his hunting than Heaven - and after death he was doomed to keep it up until the Day of Judgement. Sometimes he is identified with a local historical figure. Jacob Grimm in his Teutonic Mythology identifies the original version of his name as Hackelberend and connects it with the Old High German hahhul (Old English hacele) which can mean cloak. So now we have a cloak-bearer. Hmmm. Do we know any Germanic entity who goes about the world in disguise, mixing and meddling with humans? What about that mysterious cry, "Wod! Wod!" ? Add that he can be blind or half-blind, that he is often called "der Wode", and the Wild Host is called "wutende her", a definition that can't but recall the name of... Wodan!
That's him. In his most basic Germanic form, the Wild Hunter is none other than the Nordic god Odin, leading the Furious Host or the Wild Hunt on his eight-legged horse, Sleipnir, and followed by the Valkyries and the Einherjar, the dead heroes. If the hapless traveler behaves with due respect, or cleverness, he can go home with his boot full of gold or be given food and drink. Even children used to leave their boots or socks out by the hearth on Solstice Eve, filled with hay and sugar for Sleipnir; in return, Wotan would leave them a gift. In Christian times the figure of Saint Nicholas was superimposed to Wotan, and the benign, gift-bearing Santa Claus / Father Christmas, escorted by reindeers, was born.
But even if the Wild Hunter can be generous, don't get too cocky, for example by mocking the call of the hunters. You might end up dead for the shock of finding a haunch of a black horse hurtling down your chimney (beats finding a horse's head in your bed!). Hopefully they will just be in a playful mood and put you on a high rock from which you cannot get down without help. Or if you meet the lugubrious procession of the dead, whatever you do, don't ask for a light: you might discover in the morning that the torch given to you by that helpful, gaunt gentleman is not exactly a stick of wood.
It must be said, however, that the identification of the Wild Hunter with the Devil, or at least with a divinity of the underworld, is not that far off. The female version of the Wild Hunter is sometimes known as Frau Gauden, a name that bears a clear resemblance to that of Wodan. She goes also by the name of Horla, Berahta or Perchte. All these goddesses bear a resemblance to Diana/Artemis, who hunts in the night and is also identified with Hecate, "Queen of Ghosts". A similar Germanic goddess is Hel, who originally did not have a negative connotation: she welcomed in her realm the souls of those who did not die in battle and so were not worthy of going to Walhalla. Thus, Hellequin might derive from Hel's Kin. It all comes full circle.
There is an immense wealth of stories about the Wild Hunt that I am forced to overlook this time, but it is to be remarked that the theme of the Wild Hunt still surfaces today in the most unlikely places. I shall leave you with a piece some of you might be familiar with, the Western ballad "Ghost Riders in the Sky", written in 1948 by Stan Jones, which leaves little doubt about its inspiration:
An old cowboy went riding out one dark and windy day
Upon a ridge he rested as he went along his way
When all at once a mighty herd of red eyed cows he saw
A-plowing through the ragged sky and up the cloudy draw
Their brands were still on fire and their hooves were made of steel
Their horns were black and shiny and their hot breath he could feel
A bolt of fear went through him as they thundered through the sky
For he saw the Riders coming hard and he heard their mournful cry
Yippie yi Ohhhhh
Yippie yi yaaaaay
Ghost Riders in the sky
Their faces gaunt, their eyes were blurred, their shirts all soaked with sweat
He's riding hard to catch that herd, but he ain't caught 'em yet
'Cause they've got to ride forever on that range up in the sky
On horses snorting fire
As they ride on hear their cry
As the riders loped on by him he heard one call his name
If you want to save your soul from Hell a-riding on our range
Then cowboy change your ways today or with us you will ride
Trying to catch the Devil's herd, across these endless skies
Yippie yi Ohhhhh
Yippie yi Yaaaaay
Ghost Riders in the sky
Bibliography:
Jacob Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, esp. chapter 31
The Folklore of the Wild Hunt and the Furious Host by Kveldulf Hagen Gundarsson
Orkneyjar - The Wild Hunt in the Orkneys
Tersilla Gatto Chanu, Storie e Leggende delle Alpi - Roma, Newton&Compton, 2002 - ISBN 88-8289-713-3
Waelburga and the Rites of May - By: Winifred Hodge
Holda and the Cult of Witches, by Swain Wodening
The Wild Hunt or Fairy Raed
Herne the Hunter
Počme du Comte Hernequin - La Mesnie Hellequin
Credits:
Wild Hunt icon by Fedelm Cruithni
Background by http://www.grsites.com
Odin image by Carl Frederick von Salza
Furious Host image by Peter Nicolai Arbo
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