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{{Short description|Germanic folkloric motif}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
[[File:La caza salvaje de Odín, por Peter Nicolai Arbo.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|{{lang|da|[[The Wild Hunt of Odin|Asgårdsreien]]}} [''The Wild Hunt of Odin''] (1872) by [[Peter Nicolai Arbo]]]]

The '''Wild Hunt''' is a [[folklore]] motif occurring across various northern, western and eastern [[Europe]]an societies, appearing in the religions of the [[Germanic peoples|Germans]], [[Celts]], and [[Slavs]] (motif E501 [[Motif-Index of Folk-Literature|per Thompson]]).<ref>{{cite book |last=Thompson |first=Stith |title=The Folktale |publisher=University of California Press |date=1977 |page=257 |isbn=0-520-03537-2 }}</ref> Wild Hunts typically involve a chase led by a mythological figure escorted by a ghostly or supernatural group of [[hunting|hunters]] engaged in pursuit.{{Sfn|Greenwood|2008|p=195}} The leader of the hunt is often a named figure associated with [[Odin]] in Germanic legends,{{sfn|Schön|2004|pp=201–205}}{{Sfn|Greenwood|2008|p=196}} but may variously be a historical or legendary figure like [[Theodoric the Great]], the Danish king {{Lang|da|[[Valdemar Atterdag]]|italic=no}}, the dragon slayer [[Sigurd]], the [[psychopomp]] of Welsh mythology {{lang|cy|[[Gwyn ap Nudd]]|italic=no}}, biblical figures such as [[Herod Antipas|Herod]], [[Cain]], [[Gabriel]], or [[Satan|the Devil]], or an unidentified lost soul. The hunters are generally the souls of [[ghost|the dead]] or ghostly dogs, sometimes [[fairy|fairies]], [[valkyries]], or [[elf|elves]].{{sfn|Briggs|1967|pp=49–50}}{{sfn|Briggs|1978|loc="Wild Hunt", p. 437}}{{Sfn|Greenwood|2008|pp=195–197|p=|ps=: "'Wild Hunt', a generic name given to numerous folk myths associated with ‘soul-ravening’ chases, often led by a god, goddess, or mythological figure accompanied by a cavalcade of souls of the dead ... In Teutonic mythology it is Woden (Odin or Wotan) who leads the hunt accompanied by fearsome ghostly dogs ... In some accounts, Woden is accompanied by beautiful spirit maidens called Valkyries or Waekyrges ... Herne the hunter, a descendant of Woden, is also said to lead a Faery pack across the hills of Britain ..."}}

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.<ref>See, for example, ''[[Chambers's Encyclopaedia]]'', 1901, ''s.v.'' "Wild Hunt": "[Gabriel's Hounds]&nbsp;... portend death or calamity to the house over which they hang"; "the cry of the Seven Whistlers&nbsp;... a death omen".</ref> People encountering the Hunt might also be abducted to the underworld or the fairy kingdom.{{efn|1=A girl who saw [[Eadric the Wild|Wild Edric]]'s Ride was warned by her father to put her apron over her head to avoid the sight.{{sfn|Briggs|1978|loc="Infringement of fairy privacy", p. 233}}}} In some instances, it was also believed that people's spirits could be pulled away during their sleep to join the cavalcade.<ref>{{cite book |first=Ronald |last=Hutton |title=The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy |url=https://archive.org/details/paganreligionsan00hutt/page/n331 |url-access=limited |date=8 December 1993 |page=307 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=0-631-18946-7}}</ref>

The concept was developed by [[Jacob Grimm]] in his {{Lang|de|[[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]].{{sfn|Schön|2004|pp=201–205}} [[Lotte Motz]] noted, however, that the motif abounds "above all in areas of Germanic speech."<ref name="Motz 1984">Motz, Lotte (1984). "The Winter Goddess: Percht, Holda and Related Figures". ''Folklore''. p. 163.</ref> Grimm popularised the term {{Lang|de|Wilde Jagd}} ('Wild Hunt') for the phenomenon.

==Comparative evidence and terminology==
=== Germanic tradition ===
Based on the [[Comparative method|comparative study]] of the [[German folklore]], the phenomenon is often referred to as {{Lang|de|Wilde Jagd}} ([[German language|German]]: 'Wild Hunt/chase') or {{Lang|de|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'.{{Sfn|Kershaw|1997|p=29}} It was also known in Germany as the {{Lang|de|Wildes Heer}} ('Wild Army'), its leader was given various identities, including Wodan (or "[[Wōden|Woden]]"), [[Knecht Ruprecht]] (compare [[Krampus]]), [[Berchtold]] (or [[Perchta|Berchta]]), and [[Holda]] (or "Holle"). The Wild Hunt is also known from post-medieval folklore.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Wild Hunt |url=https://norse-mythology.org/the-wild-hunt/ |access-date=2024-05-22 |website=Norse Mythology for Smart People |language=en-US}}</ref>

In England, it was known as {{lang|ang|Herlaþing}} ([[Old English]]: '[[Herla]]'s assembly'), ''Woden's Hunt'', ''Herod's Hunt'', ''Cain's Hunt'',<ref>{{cite book |title=The Witch Figure: Folklore Essays by a Group of Scholars in England Honouring the 75th Birthday of Katharine M. Briggs |date=2004 |isbn=978-0-41533-074-9 |editor-last=Newall |editor-first=Venetia |page=103f |chapter=The Jew as a witch figure |doi=10.4324/9781315018058 |doi-broken-date=12 July 2025 |quote=In the Middle Ages the wild hunt was also called Cain's hunt, Cain being another progenitor of the [[Wandering Jew]].}}</ref> the ''Devil's Dandy Dogs'' (in [[Cornwall]]),<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Devil's Dandy Dogs |encyclopedia=The Encyclopaedia of the Celts |url=http://www.isle-of-skye.org.uk/celtic-encyclopaedia/celt_d2b.htm |isbn=87-985346-0-2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061028090823/http://www.isle-of-skye.org.uk/celtic-encyclopaedia/celt_d2b.htm |archive-date=2006-10-28 |url-status=dead}}</ref> ''Gabriel's Hounds'' (in northern England),<ref>{{cite book |last=Hendrickson |first=Robert |title=Salty Words |date=1984 |page=78 |quote=Gabriel's hounds are wild geese, so called because their sound in flight is like a pack of hounds in full cry.}}</ref> and ''[[(Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Legend|Ghost Riders]]'' (in North America).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Houston |first=Susan Hilary |year=1964 |title=Ghost Riders in the Sky |journal=[[Western Folklore]] |volume=23 |issue=3 |pages=153–162 |doi=10.2307/1498899 |jstor=1498899}}</ref>

In Scandinavia, the Wild Hunt is known as {{lang|no|Oskoreia}} (commonly interpreted as 'The [[Asgard]] Ride'), and as {{lang|da|Oensjægeren}} ('Odin's Hunters').{{Sfn|Kershaw|1997|p=29}} The names {{lang|no|Åsgårdsrei}} ('[[Asgard]] Ride' as attested in parts of [[Trøndelag]]),<ref>{{Cite web|title=oskorei|url=https://alfa.norsk-ordbok.no/?men=noob&mc0=no&mc1=ah&q=oskorei&but=oskorei&scope=e|access-date=2023-07-13|website=norsk-ordbok.no}}</ref> {{lang|sv|Odens jakt}} and {{lang|sv|Vilda jakten}} ([[Swedish language|Swedish]]: 'the hunt of [[Odin]]' and 'wild hunt') are also attested.{{Citation needed|date=April 2020}} At the very front of Oskoreia rides [[Gudrun|Guro Rysserova]] ('Gudrun Horsetail'), often called ''Guro Åsgard'', who is ''"big and horrid, her horse black and called Skokse (...)"''<ref>{{Cite web|title=Åsgardsreia – heimskringla.no|url=https://heimskringla.no/wiki/%C3%85sgardsreia|access-date=2021-08-31|website=heimskringla.no}}</ref>

There is disagreement about the etymology of the word {{lang|no|oskorei}}. The first element has several proposed sources: ''Åsgård'' ('[[Asgard]]'), ''oska'' ('thunder'), or Old Norse ''ǫskurligr'' ('dreadful').<ref>{{Cite web|title=Asgaardsrej|url=https://ordnet.dk/ods/ordbog?query=Asgaardsrej|access-date=2023-07-13|website=ordnet.dk}}</ref> The hypothetical ''Ásgoðreið'' ('Æsir God Ride') was also once proposed. Only the second element, {{lang|no|rei}} ('ride') from Old Norse {{lang|non|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]].<ref>V. Espeland, L. Kreken, M. Dahle Lauten, B. Nordbø, E. Prøysen, A. N. Ressem, O. Solberg, E. Nessheim Wiger (2016) Kjempe- og trollballadar</ref>

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.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}}

=== Europe ===
In Welsh folklore, {{lang|cy|[[Gwyn ap Nudd]]|italic=no}} 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.{{Sfn|Greenwood|2008|p=196}} A comparable Welsh folk myth is known as {{Lang|cy|[[Cŵn Annwn]]}} ([[Welsh language|Welsh]]: "hounds of [[Annwn]]").{{Citation needed|date=April 2020}}

In France, the "Host" was known in Latin sources as {{Lang|la|Familia Hellequini}} and in [[Old French]] as {{lang|fro|Maisnie Hellequin}} (the "household or [[retinue]] of Hellequin"). The Old French name {{lang|fro|Hellequin}} was probably borrowed from Middle English {{lang|enm|[[Herla|Herla king]]}} ([[Old English]] {{lang|ang|*Her(e)la-cyning}}) by the Romance-speaking [[Norman conquest of England|Norman invaders of Britain]].<ref>{{lang|de|[[Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch]]}}, vol. 16, [https://apps.atilf.fr/lecteurFEW/index.php/page/lire/e/137132 200–202].</ref>{{Sfn|Kershaw|1997|p=|pp=61–65}} Other similar figures appear in the French folklore, such as {{lang|fr|Le Grand-Veneur}}, a hunter who chased with dogs in the [[forest of Fontainebleau]],{{Sfn|Greenwood|2008|p=196 (note 1)}} 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 {{Lang|fr|[[Chasse-galerie]]}}.{{Sfn|Du Berger|1979|p=}}

Among [[West Slavs]], it is known as {{lang|cs|divoký hon}} or {{lang|cs|štvaní}} ([[Czech language|Czech]]: "wild hunt", "baiting"), ''dzëwô/dzëkô jachta'' ([[Kashubian language|Kashubian]]: "wild hunt"), ''Dziki Gon'' or {{lang|pl|Dziki Łów}} ([[Polish language|Polish]]). It is also known among the [[Sorbs]] and among the South Slavic Slovenes {{lang|sl|Divja Jaga}} ([[Slovene language|Slovene]]: "the wild hunting party" or "wild hunt"). However, scholars of Slavic folklore have noted it is a motif of foreign, specifically German(ic), origin.<ref>Kajkowski, Kamil (2020). “Myth in Action? Figurative Images on Ceramics as a Source for Studying the Pre-Christian Beliefs of Western Slavs”. ''Studia Mythologica Slavica''. p. 13.</ref><ref>Valentsova, Marina M. (2023). “Slavic demonology. A brief survey”, in ''New Researches on the religion and mythology of the Pagan Slavs 2'', Patrice Lajoye & Stamatis Zochios, eds. Lisieux: Lingva; p. 271.</ref> In Belarusian, it is called Дзiкае Паляванне (Belarusian: "wild hunt"). As Belarus used to be part of Poland, the motif's presence likely came from there as an intermediary.

In [[Italian language|Italy]], it is called {{lang|it|Caccia Morta}} ("Dead Hunt"), {{lang|it|Caccia infernale}} ("[[Nastagio degli Onesti#Style and interpretations|infernal hunt]]") or {{lang|it|Caccia selvaggia}} ("Wild Hunt")

In [[Spain]] this myth is documented at least since the 13th century, under the name {{lang|es|hueste antigua}} ("Old army"),<ref>"Because we always try to imitate those of the Wild Hunt, who never rest, day or night. And our lord is like Satan, and we are like his servants, who only rest when looting the souls of men" (circa 1270, [[Alfonso X]], [[Estoria de España]])</ref> today {{lang|es|estantigua}}.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Castro |first1=Americo |title=Lengua, enseñanza y literatura (esbozos) |date=1924 |publisher=Victoriano Suárez |location=Madrid |pages=90–92}}</ref> In [[Galician language|Galician]] is known as {{lang|gl|Estantiga}} (from {{lang|gl|Hoste Antiga}} "the old army"), {{lang|gl|Compaña}} and {{lang|gl|Santa Compaña}} ("troop, company"); {{lang|es|Güestia}} in [[Asturias]]; {{lang|es|Hueste de Ánimas}} ("troop of ghosts") in [[León (Spain)|León]]; and {{lang|es|Hueste de Guerra}} ("war company") or {{lang|es|Cortejo de Gente de Muerte}} ("deadly retinue") in [[Extremadura (Spain)|Extremadura]].

==Historiography==
{{Quote box|width=25em|align=right|quote="Another class of specters will prove more fruitful for our investigation: they, like the ignes fatui, include ''unchristened babes'', but instead of straggling singly on the earth as fires, they sweep through forest and air in ''whole companies'' with a horrible din. This is the widely spread legend of the ''furious host'', the ''furious hunt'', which is of high antiquity, and interweaves itself, now with gods, and now with heroes. Look where you will, it betrays its {{as written|connexion}} with heathenism."|source=— Folklorist Jacob Grimm.{{sfn|Grimm|2004b|p=918}} }}

The concept of the Wild Hunt was first documented by the German folklorist [[Jacob Grimm]] who first published it in his 1835 book ''[[Deutsche Mythologie]]''.{{sfn|Hutton|2014|p=162}} It was in this work that he popularized the term ''Wilde Jagd'' ("Wild Hunt") for the phenomenon.{{sfn|Hutton|2014|p=162}} Grimm's methodological approach was rooted in the idea, common in nineteenth-century Europe, that modern folklore represented a fossilized survival of the beliefs of the distant past. In developing his idea of the Wild Hunt, he mixed together recent folkloric sources with textual evidence dating to the medieval and early modern periods.{{sfn|Hutton|2014|p=163}} This approach came to be criticized within the field of [[folkloristics]] during the 20th century as more emphasis was placed on the "dynamic and evolving nature of folklore".{{sfn|Hutton|2014|p=163}}
[[File:Wodan's wilde Jagd by F. W. Heine.jpg|thumb|upright|"Wodan's Wild Hunt" (1882) by [[Friedrich Wilhelm Heine]]]]
Grimm interpreted the Wild Hunt phenomenon as having pre-Christian origins, arguing that the male figure who appeared in it was a survival of folk beliefs about the god [[Wodan]] who had "lost his sociable character, his near familiar features, and assumed the aspect of a dark and dreadful power... a specter and a devil."{{sfn|Grimm|2004b|p=918}} Grimm believed that this male figure was sometimes replaced by a female counterpart, whom he referred to as [[Holda]] and [[Berchta]].{{sfn|Grimm|2004b|p=927}} In his words, "not only Wuotan and other gods, but heathen goddesses too, may head the furious host: the wild hunter passes into the wood-wife, Wôden into ''Frau Gaude''."{{sfn|Grimm|2004b|p=932}} He added his opinion that this female figure was Woden's wife.{{sfn|Grimm|2004b|p=946}}

Discussing martial elements of the Wild Hunt, Grimm commented that "it marches as an army, it portends the outbreak of war."{{sfn|Grimm|2004b|p=937}} He added that a number of figures that had been recorded as leading the hunt, such as "''Wuotan, Huckelbernd, Berholt,'' bestriding their ''white war-horse'', armed and spurred, appear still as ''supreme directors of the war'' for which they, so to speak, give license to mankind."{{sfn|Grimm|2004b|p=937}}

Grimm believed that in pre-Christian Europe, the hunt, led by a god and a goddess, either visited "the land at some holy tide, bringing welfare and blessing, accepting gifts and offerings of the people" or they alternately float "unseen through the air, perceptible in cloudy shapes, in the roar and howl of the winds, carrying on ''war'', ''hunting'' or the game of ''ninepins'', the chief employments of ancient heroes: an array which, less tied down to a definite time, explains more the natural phenomenon."{{sfn|Grimm|2004b|p=947}} He believed that under the influence of Christianisation, the story was converted from being that of a "solemn march of gods" to being "a pack of horrid spectres, dashed with dark and devilish ingredients".{{sfn|Grimm|2004b|p=947}} A little earlier, in 1823, [[Felicia Hemans]] records this legend in her poem ''The Wild Huntsman'', linking it here specifically to the castles of Rodenstein and Schnellerts and to the Odenwald.

In the influential book ''Kultische Geheimbünde der Germanen'' (1934), [[Otto Höfler]] argued that the German motifs of the "Wild Hunt" should be interpreted as the spectral troops led by the god [[Odin|Wuotan]] which had a ritualistic counterpart in the living bands of ecstatic warriors (Old Norse ''[[Berserker|berserkir]]''), allegedly in a cultic union with the dead warriors of the past.{{Sfn|Kershaw|1997|p=|pp=31–35}}
{{wikisource|Felicia Hemans in The New Monthly Magazine Volume 8 1823/The Wild Huntsman|'The Wild Huntsman', a poem by Felicia Hemans.}}

[[Hans Peter Duerr]] (1985) noted that for modern readers, it "is generally difficult to decide, on the basis of the sources, whether what is involved in the reports about the appearance of the Wild Hunt is merely a demonic ''interpretation'' of natural phenomenon, or whether we are dealing with a description of ritual processions of humans changed into demons."{{sfn|Duerr|1985|p=36}} Historian [[Ronald Hutton]] noted that there was "a powerful and well-established international scholarly tradition" which argued that the medieval Wild Hunt legends were an influence on the development of the early modern ideas of the [[Witches' Sabbath]].{{sfn|Hutton|2014|p=162}} Hutton nevertheless believed that this approach could be "fundamentally challenged".{{sfn|Hutton|2014|p=162}}

Lotte Motz noted that the motif is found "above all in areas of Germanic speech." While found in areas once settled by Celts, these legends are told less frequently and they are not encountered in the Mediterranean regions, "at least not easily".<ref name="Motz 1984" />

==Attestations==
===Germany===
An abundance of different tales of the Wild Hunt has been recorded in Germany. The leader, often called ''der Schimmelreiter'',{{Sfn|Kershaw|1997|p=48}} is generally identified with the god [[Odin|Wotan]],{{Sfn|Greenwood|2008|p=196}} but sometimes with a feminine figure: the wife of Wotan, [[Frau Holle|Holda]] ('the friendly one'; also Holle or Holt), Fru Waur, or Fru Gode in Northern Germany; or [[Perchta]] (the bright one; also Berchta, Berhta or Berta) in Southern Germany.{{Sfn|Kershaw|1997|p=30}}{{Sfn|Greenwood|2008|p=198}} The leader also is sometimes an undead noble, most often called Count Hackelberg or Count Ebernburg, who is cursed to hunt eternally because of misbehaviour during his lifetime, and in some versions died from injuries of a slain boar's tusk.{{Citation needed|date=April 2020}}

Dogs and wolves were generally involved. In some areas, werewolves were depicted as stealing beer and sometimes food in houses. Horses were portrayed as two-, three-, six-, and eight-legged, often with fiery eyes.{{Sfn|Kershaw|1997|p=30}} In the 'Host' variants, principally found in southern Germany, a man went out in front, warning people to get out of the streets before the coming of the Host's armed men, who were sometimes depicted as doing battle with one another. A feature peculiar to the 'Hunt' version, generally encountered in northern Germany, was the pursuit and capture of one or more female demons, or a hart in some versions, while some others did not have prey at all.{{Sfn|Kershaw|1997|p=30}}

Sometimes, the tales associate the hunter with a dragon or the devil. The lone hunter (''der Wilde Jäger'') is most often riding a horse, seldom a horse-drawn carriage, and usually has several hounds in his company. If the prey is mentioned, it is most often a young woman, either guilty or innocent. [[Gottfried August Bürger]]'s ballad ''Der wilde Jäger'' describes the fate of a nobleman who dares to hunt on the Sabbath and finds both a curse and a pack of demons deep in the woods.{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}} He might also have asked God to let him hunt until [[Judgement Day]], as has ''[[ewiger Jäger]]'' (the eternal hunter).<ref>Wilhelm Grimm, Jacob Grimm: ''Deutsche Sagen''. Hamburg 2014, p. 307.</ref>

The majority of the tales deal with some person encountering the Wild Hunt. If this person stands up against the hunters, he will be punished. If he helps the hunt, he will be awarded money, gold, or, most often, a leg of a slain animal or human, which is often cursed in a way that makes it impossible to be rid of it. In this case, the person has to find a priest or magician able to ban it or trick the Wild Hunt into taking the leg back by asking for salt, which the hunt can not deliver. In many versions, a person staying right in the middle of the road during the encounter is safe.<ref>{{cite book|title=Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens. Waage-Zypresse, Nachträge |editor=Hoffmann-Krayer, Eduard |editor2=Baechtold-Staeubli, Hanns |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |year=2002 |series=Handwörterbuecher zur Deutschen Volkskunde |volume=1 |pages=191ff |isbn=978-3-11-006597-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cqdVHI1lHGkC&pg=PA191 |language=de}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Neumann |first=Siegfried |author2=Tietz, Karl-Ewald |author3=Jahn, Ulrich |title=Volkssagen aus Pommern und Rügen |editor=Neumann, Siegfried |editor2=Tietz, Karl-Ewald |publisher=Edition Temmen |location=Bremen-Rostock |year=1999 |pages=407, 29ff |isbn=978-3-86108-733-5|language=de}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Simrock|first=Karl|title=Handbuch der deutschen Mythologie mit Einschluß der Nordischen|publisher=Marcus|year=1878|edition=5th|pages=[https://archive.org/details/handbuchderdeut06simrgoog/page/n207 191], 196ff|language=de|url=https://archive.org/details/handbuchderdeut06simrgoog}}</ref>

===Scandinavia===
[[File:Odin's hunt (Malmström).jpg|upright|right|thumb|Odin continued to hunt in [[Norse mythology|Norse myths]]. Illustration by [[August Malmström]].]]
In Scandinavia, the leader of the hunt was Odin and the event was referred to as ''Odens jakt'' (''Odin's hunt'') and ''Oskoreia'' (from ''Asgårdsreien'' – ''the Asgard Ride''). Odin's hunt was heard but rarely seen, and a typical trait is that one of Odin's dogs was barking louder and a second one fainter. Besides one or two shots, these barks were the only sounds that were clearly identified. When Odin's hunt was heard, it meant changing weather in many regions, but it could also mean war and unrest. According to some reports, the forest turned silent and only a whining sound and dog barks could be heard.{{sfn|Schön|2004|pp=201–205}}

In western Sweden and sometimes in the east as well, it has been said that Odin was a nobleman or even a king who had hunted on Sundays and therefore was doomed to hunt down and kill supernatural beings until the end of time.{{sfn|Schön|2004|pp=201–205}} According to certain accounts, Odin does not ride, but travels in a wheeled vehicle, specifically a one-wheeled cart.{{sfn|Schön|2004|p=204|ps=, referring to a report from Voxtorp in Småland.}}

In parts of [[Småland]], it appears that people believed that Odin hunted with large birds when the dogs got tired. When it was needed, he could transform a bevy of sparrows into an armed host.{{sfn|Schön|2004|pp=201–205}}

If houses were built on former roads, they could be burnt down, because Odin did not change his plans if he had formerly travelled on a road there. Not even charcoal kilns could be built on disused roads, because if Odin was hunting the kiln would be ablaze.{{sfn|Schön|2004|pp=201–205}}

One tradition maintains that Odin did not travel further up than an ox wears his yoke, so if Odin was hunting, it was safest to throw oneself onto the ground in order to avoid being hit, a [[pourquoi story]] that evolved as an explanation for the popular belief that persons lying at ground level are [[Lightning strike#Personal safety|safer from lightning strikes]] than are persons who are standing.{{citation needed|date=October 2019}} In [[Älghult]] in Småland, it was safest to carry a piece of bread and a piece of steel when going to church and back during [[Yule]]. The reason was that if one met the rider with the broad-rimmed hat, one should throw the piece of steel in front of oneself, but if one met his dogs first, one should throw the pieces of bread instead.{{sfn|Schön|2004|pp=201–205}}

=== Britain ===
In the ''[[Peterborough Chronicle]]'', there is an account of the Wild Hunt's appearance at night, beginning with the appointment of a disastrous abbot for the monastery, [[Henry d'Angely]], in 1127:
{{blockquote|Many men both saw and heard a great number of huntsmen hunting. The huntsmen were black, huge, and hideous, and rode on black horses and on black he-goats, and their hounds were jet black, with eyes like saucers, and horrible. This was seen in the very deer park of the town of Peterborough, and in all the woods that stretch from that same town to Stamford, and in the night the monks heard them sounding and winding their horns.<ref name=Garmonsway>{{cite book|editor=Garmonsway, G.N.|title=The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle|publisher=London: J.M. Dent; New York: Dutton|date=1972|page=258|isbn=0460106244}}</ref>}}

[[File:Wistman's Wood in winter.jpg|thumb|right|[[Wistman's Wood]] in Devon, England.]]

Reliable witnesses were said to have given the number of huntsmen as twenty or thirty, and it is said, in effect, that this went on for nine weeks, ending at Easter.<ref name="Garmonsway" /> [[Orderic Vitalis]] (1075–c. 1142), an English monk cloistered at [[St Evroul-en-Ouche]], in [[Normandy]], reported a similar cavalcade seen in January 1091, which he said were "Herlechin's troop" (''familia Herlechini''; cf. [[Harlequin]]).<ref>{{cite journal|last=Peake|first=Harold|author1-link=Harold Peake |date=February 1922|title=17. Horned Deities|url=https://zenodo.org/record/2368249|journal=[[Man (journal)|Man]]|volume=22|doi=10.2307/2840222|jstor=2840222|page=28}}</ref>

While these earlier reports of Wild Hunts were recorded by clerics and portrayed as diabolic, in late medieval romances, such as ''[[Sir Orfeo]]'', the hunters are rather from a [[faery]] otherworld, where the Wild Hunt was the hosting of the [[fairy|fairies]]; its leaders also varied, but they included [[Gwydion]], [[Gwynn ap Nudd]], [[King Arthur]], [[Nuada]], [[Herla|King Herla]], [[Woden]], [[Satan|the Devil]] and [[Herne the Hunter]]. Many legends are told of their origins, as in that of "Dando and his dogs" or "the dandy dogs": Dando, wanting a drink but having exhausted what his huntsmen carried, declared he would go to hell for it. A stranger came and offered a drink, only to steal Dando's game and then Dando himself, with his dogs giving chase. The sight was long claimed to have been seen in the area.{{sfn|Briggs|1967|p=49}} Another legend recounted how King Herla, having visited the [[Oberon|Fairy King]], was warned not to step down from his horse until the greyhound he carried jumped down; he found that three centuries had passed during his visit, and those of his men who dismounted crumbled to dust; he and his men are still riding, because the greyhound has yet to jump down.{{sfn|Briggs|1967|pp=50–51}}

The myth of the Wild Hunt has through the ages been modified to accommodate other gods and folk heroes, among them [[King Arthur]] and, more recently, in a [[Dartmoor]] [[folk legend]], [[Francis Drake|Sir Francis Drake]]. At [[Cadbury Castle, Somerset|Cadbury Castle]] in Somerset, an old lane near the castle was called King Arthur's Lane and even in the 19th century, the idea survived that on wild winter nights the king and his hounds could be heard rushing along with it.{{sfn|Westwood|1985|p=8}}

In certain parts of Britain, the hunt is said to be that of hell-hounds chasing sinners or the unbaptized. In [[Devon]] these are known as Yeth (Heath) or [[Wisht Hounds]], in Cornwall Dando and his Dogs or the Devil and his Dandy Dogs, in Wales the [[Cwn Annwn]], the Hounds of Hell, and in [[Somerset]] as Gabriel Ratchets or Retchets (dogs).{{sfn|Westwood|1985|pp=155–156}} In Devon the hunt is particularly associated with [[Wistman's Wood]].{{sfn|Westwood|1985|p=32}}

=== Iberia ===
{{main|Santa Compaña}}
The ''Santa Compaña''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wilkinson |first=Philip |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bJ7Lxae-bmIC&dq=holy+company+Santa+Compa%C3%B1a&pg=PA285 |title=Myths and Legends: An Illustrated Guide to Their Origins and Meanings |date=2009-07-01 |publisher=Dorling Kindersley Limited |isbn=978-1-4053-4403-6 |language=en}}</ref> (known also in [[Galician language|Galician]] as: ''Rolda'', ''As da nuite'', ''Pantalla'', ''Avisóns'' or ''Pantaruxada''; in [[Asturian language|Asturian]] as ''Güestia'', ''Güeste'', ''Güestida'' or ''Güéstiga'';<ref>{{cite web |url=https://mas.lne.es/diccionario/palabra/43243 |title=Diccionario General de la Lengua Asturiana |last=García Arias |first=Xose Lluis |date=2004 |access-date=4 October 2024 |language=es}}</ref> in [[Spanish language|Spanish]] as ''Estantigua''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://dle.rae.es/estantigua |title=Diccionario de la Lengua Española (Real Academia Española)|access-date=4 October 2024 |language=es}}</ref>)  is a mythical belief in Northwestern [[Spain]] and northern [[Portugal]] which consists in a procession of ghosts or souls. The procession is led by a living person (usually a parishioner of a particular church) carrying a cross or a cauldron of holy water (sometimes they carry both), followed by several of the souls of the dead holding lit candles.

=== Balkans ===
The [[South Slavs|South Slavic]] folklore of [[the Balkans]] features a supernatural procession of horsemen known as the Todorci that occurs on the first week of the [[Great Lent]] (known as the [[Todor]] or [[Theodore Tiron|St. Theodore]] Week)<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://bnr.bg/en/post/100102720/st-todors-day-folk-wise |title=St. Todor's Day, folk-wise |date=February 18, 2010 |publisher=Bulgarian National Radio |access-date=December 12, 2024 }}</ref> and attacks the people who consume or cook meat and dairy products. Sometimes these horsemen are instead depicted as monstrous [[centaur]]ic creatures whose torsos grow out of the horses' backs, not too dissimilarly to the traditional depiction of the [[Nuckelavee]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Гајић |first=Ненад |date=2021 |title=Словенска митологија |trans-title=Slovenska mitologija |language=Serbian |location=Београд |publisher=Лагуна }}</ref> The horseshoe-shaped wounds inflicted by the hooves of their steeds don't heal naturally; instead, the victim must visit the site of the attack one year later, where the wounds will either magically heal instantaneously if he's been living piously for the previous year, or kill him if he's been living sinfully. They can be defended against with garlic or an improvised cross made from forks or knives.<ref>{{cite book |last=Королёв |first=Кирилл |date=2005 |title=Энциклопедия сверхъестественных существ |trans-title=Entsiklopediya sverkh"estestvennykh sushchestv |language=Russian |location=Москва |publisher=Эксмо }}</ref>

In Serbia, stories involving the Todorci are generally concentrated in the north-west of the country. They're traditionally depicted as a procession of horsemen whose steeds lack tails. They usually appear on the night between Monday and Tuesday of the Todor Week. They're led by an elder man called Great Todor wearing a white cloak and riding a lame white horse. Certain versions of the story claim that he is St. Theodore himself.<ref name="Zečević">{{cite book |last=Зечевић |first=Слободан |date=1974 |title=Русалке и тодорци у народном веровању североисточне Србије |trans-title=Rusalke i todorci u narodnom verovanju severoistočne Srbije |language=Serbian |location=Београд |publisher=Гласник Етнографског музеја у Београду }}</ref>

== Interpretations ==
According to scholar Susan Greenwood, the Wild Hunt "primarily concerns an initiation into the wild, untamed forces of nature in its dark and chthonic aspects."{{Sfn|Greenwood|2008|p=195}}
{{Blockquote|text=Metamorphoses, cavalcades, ecstasies, followed by the egress of the soul in the shape of an animal—these are different paths to a single goal. Between animals and souls, animals and the dead, animals and the beyond, there exists a profound connection.|author=[[Carlo Ginzburg]]|title=''Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath''|source=p. 263.}}

==Leader of the Wild Hunt==
* [[Brittany]]: [[King Arthur]].{{sfn|Briggs|1967|p=51}}
* [[Catalonia]] (Spain): [[Comte Arnau|Count Arnau (el comte Arnau)]], a legendary nobleman from Ripollès, who for his rapacious cruelty and lechery is condemned to ride with hounds for eternity while his flesh is devoured by flames. He is the subject of a classic traditional Catalan ballad.<ref>Joaquim Maideu, "Llibre de cançons: crestomatia de cançons tradicionals catalanes", p. 50. {{ISBN|84-7602-319-7}}.</ref> In the rest of Spain there are other legends about this same motive (Galician Santa Compaña, Asturian Güestia, Castilian Estantigua, Leonese Estadea...), similarly sometimes you can find some historical figure or mythical hero related. 
* England: [[Woden]];<ref>Hole, Christina. ''Haunted England: A Survey of English Ghost Lore''. p.5. Kessinger Publishing, 1941.</ref> [[Herla]]; later de-heathenised as a Brythonic King who stayed too long at a fairy wedding feast and returned to find centuries had passed and the lands populated by Englishmen;<ref>''[[De Nugis Curialium]]'' by [[Walter Map]].</ref> [[Eadric the Wild|Wild Edric]], a Saxon rebel;{{sfn|Briggs|1978|loc="Wild Hunt", p. 436}} [[Hereward the Wake]]; [[King Arthur]]; [[Herne the Hunter]]; St. [[Guthlac]]; [[Christian teaching about the Devil|Old Nick]]; [[Jan Tregeagle]], a [[Cornish people|Cornish]] lawyer who escaped from Hell and is pursued by the devil's hounds. On [[Dartmoor]], Dewer, Old Crockern or [[Sir Francis Drake]].
* France: ''Artus'', [[King Arthur]] ([[Brittany]]); Mesnée d’Hellequin ([[Hauts-de-France]])<ref>[[Mesnée d’Hellequin]], the Goddess of Death, was said to lead the ghostly procession, https://mythology.net/norse/norse-concepts/the-wild-hunt/</ref>
* Germany: [[Wodan]], [[Berchtold]], [[Dietrich von Bern]], [[Holda]], [[Perchta]], Wildes Gjait. The Squire of Rodenstein and Hans von Hackelberg (both Sabbath-breakers).<ref>Ruben A. Koman, ''Dalfser Muggen'' Profiel, Bedum 2006. [http://www.destentor.nl/vechtdal/article234121.ece] <!--ISBN?--></ref>
* [[Guernsey]]: [[Herodias]] (Rides with witches at sea)<ref>{{cite book|last=Hutton|first=Ronald|chapter=Paganism in the Lost Centuries|page=[https://archive.org/details/witchesdruidskin00hutt/page/169 169]|url=https://archive.org/details/witchesdruidskin00hutt |url-access=registration|title=Witches, Druids, and King Arthur|publisher=A&C Black|edition=3rd|date=2006|isbn=1-85285-397-2}}</ref>
* [[Lombardy]] ([[Italy]]): [[Theodoric the Great|King Beatrik]], la Dona del Zöch ([[Lombard language|Lombard]]:the Lady of the Game).<ref>Carlo Ginzburg, ''Storia Notturna – Una decifrazione del sabba'', Biblioteca Einaudi</ref>
* Netherlands: [[Wodan]], ''Gait met de hunties/hondjes'' (Gait with his little dogs); ''Derk met de hunties/hondjes'' (Derk with his little dogs); ''Derk met den beer'' (Derk with his boar/bear); ''het Glujende peerd'' (the glowing horse); Ronnekemère; Henske met de hondjes/Hänske mit de hond (Henske with his little dogs); [[Christoph Bernhard von Galen]] (also known as "Bommen Berend" or "Bombing Bernhard"; the [[bishop of Münster]] who laid [[siege of Groningen (1672)|siege to Gröningen]] in 1672).{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}
* [[Scandinavia]]: [[Odin]]; [[Saint Lucy's Day#Lussi|Lussi]]; King Vold (Denmark); [[Valdemar Atterdag]] (Denmark); the witch [[Guro Rysserova]] and Sigurdsveinen (Norway).{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}
* [[Wales]]: [[Arawn]] or [[Gwyn ap Nudd]], the Welsh god of the Underworld.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}
* [[The Balkans]]: [[Theodore Tiron|St. Theodore]].<ref name="Zečević" />
* [[Slovenia]]: Jarnik ([[Jarilo]]), also called ''Volčji pastir'' (Wolf Herdsman).<ref>Kropej, Monika. “The Horse As a Cosmological Creature in the Slovene Mythopoetic Heritage". ''[[Studia Mythologica Slavica]]'' 1 (May/1998). Ljubljana, Slovenija. 165. https://doi.org/10.3986/sms.v1i0.1871.</ref> In some variations the mythical wild Baba (similar to [[Perchta]]) leads the hunt; in others, the leader of this retinue is a female character named ''Pehtra''.<ref>Kropej, Monika. "Slovene midwinter: deities and personifications of days in the yearly, work, and life cycles". In: Mencej, Mirjam (ed.). ''Space and time in Europe: East and West, Past and Present''. Ljubljana: Zbirka Zupaničeva knjižnica, št. 25. Ljubljana: Oddelek za etnologijo in kulturno antropologijo, Filozofska fakulteta [Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Arts], 2008. pp. 189-191.</ref>

==Modern influence==
===On Santa Claus===
The role of Wotan's Wild Hunt during the Yuletide period has been theorized to have influenced the development of the Dutch Christmas figure [[Sinterklaas]], and by extension his American counterpart [[Santa Claus]], in a variety of facets. These include his long white beard and his gray horse for nightly rides.<ref name="ODIN-CLAUS-EXAMPLES">For example, see McKnight, George Harley (1917). ''St. Nicholas: His Legend and His Role in the Christmas Celebration and Other Popular Customs'', pages 24–26, 138–139. G. P. Putman's sons. & Springwood, Charles Fruehling (2009). "If Santa Wuz Black: The Domestication of a White Myth", pages 243–244. As published in ''Studies in Symbolic Interaction: Volume 33 of Studies in Symbolic Interactions Series''. Emerald Group Publishing. {{ISBN|9781848557840}} [https://archive.org/details/stnicholashis00mckn archive.org copy]</ref>

===In modern paganism===
{{Quote box|width=25em|align=right|quote="As far as practitioners of nature spiritualities are concerned, the Wild Hunt offers an initiation into the wild and an opening up of the senses; a sense of dissolution of self in confrontation with fear and death, an exposure to a 'whirlwind pulse that runs through life'. In short, engagement with the Hunt is a bid to restore a reciprocity and harmony between humans and nature."|source=— Susan Greenwood.{{sfn|Greenwood|2008|p=220}} }}

Various practitioners of the contemporary pagan religion of [[Wicca]] have drawn upon folklore involving the Wild Hunt to inspire their own rites. In their context, the leader of the Wild Hunt is the goddess [[Hecate]].{{sfn|Greenwood|2008|p=198}} The anthropologist Susan Greenwood provided an account of one such Wild Hunt ritual performed by a modern Pagan group in [[Norfolk]] during the late 1990s, stating that they used this mythology "as a means of confronting the dark of nature as a process of initiation."{{sfn|Greenwood|2008|p=198}} Referred to as the "Wild Hunt Challenge" by those running it, it took place on [[Halloween]] and involved participants walking around a local area of woodland in the daytime, and then repeating that task as a timed competition at night, "to gain mastery over an area of Gwyn ap Nudd's hunting ground". If completed successfully, it was held that the participant had gained the trust of the wood's spirits, and they would be permitted to cut timber from its trees with which to make a staff.{{sfn|Greenwood|2008|p=201}} The anthropologist Rachel Morgain reported a "ritual recreation" of the Wild Hunt among the [[Reclaiming (Neopaganism)|Reclaiming]] tradition of Wicca in [[San Francisco]].{{sfn|Morgain|2012|p=523}}

== In popular culture ==
{{In popular culture|section|date=September 2023}}
The ''[[The Wild Hunt of Odin|Åsgårdsreien]]'', [[Peter Nicolai Arbo]]'s 1872 oil painting, depicts the Scandinavian version of the Wild Hunt, with [[Thor]] leading the hunting party.<ref>{{cite web |date=2015-06-18 |title=Thor Leads the Wild Hunt for Asgard |url=https://throwbackthorsday.wordpress.com/2015/06/18/thor-leads-the-wild-hunt-for-asgard/}}</ref> This painting is featured on the cover of [[Bathory (band)|Bathory]]'s 1988 album, ''[[Blood Fire Death]]''.

=== Music ===
The Wild Hunt is the subject of [[Transcendental Étude No. 8 (Liszt)|Transcendental Étude No. 8]] in C minor, "''Wilde Jagd''" (Wild Hunt) by Franz Liszt,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.classicalconnect.com/Piano_Music/Liszt/Transcendental/3991|title=Transcendental Etude No. 8 "Wilde Jagd" – Giorgi Latso – Piano Music – Free classical music online|website=www.classicalconnect.com}}</ref> and appears in [[Karl Maria von Weber]]'s 1821 opera ''[[Der Freischütz]]''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.danielmcadam.com/freischutz.html|title=Der Freischutz|website=www.danielmcadam.com}}</ref> and in [[Arnold Schoenberg]]'s [[oratorio]] ''[[Gurre-Lieder]]'' of 1911.<ref>{{cite book|title=Schoenberg and Words: The Modernist Years|pages=37–38|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c7TTh2HdbjcC&pg=PA37|isbn=9780815328308|last1=Cross|first1=Charlotte Marie|last2=Berman|first2=Russell A.|year=2000|publisher=Taylor & Francis }}</ref> [[César Franck]]'s orchestral tone poem ''[[Le Chasseur maudit (Franck)|Le Chasseur maudit]]'' (''The Accursed Huntsman'') is based on [[Gottfried August Bürger]]'s ballad ''Der wilde Jäger''.

In act 1 of [[Richard Wagner]]'s 1870 opera ''[[Die Walküre]]'', Siegmund relates that he has been pursued by “Das wütende Heer”, which is an indication to the audience that it is Wotan himself who has called up the storm which has driven him (Siegmund) to Hunding's dwelling.

The subject of [[Stan Jones (songwriter)|Stan Jones]]' American [[country and western music|country]] song "[[(Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Legend|Ghost Riders in the Sky]]" of 1948, which tells of [[cowboy]]s chasing the [[Devil in Christianity|Devil]]'s cattle through the night sky, resembles the European myth.<ref>{{cite web |date=2012-12-09 |title=Ghost Riders In the Sky: The Wild Hunt and the Eternal Stampede |url=https://esoterx.com/2012/12/09/ghost-riders-in-the-sky-the-wild-hunt-and-the-eternal-stampede/ |access-date=6 July 2017}}</ref>

Swedish [[Folk music|folk]] musician [[The Tallest Man on Earth]] released an album in 2010 entitled ''[[The Wild Hunt (The Tallest Man on Earth album)|The Wild Hunt]]'', and in 2013 the [[black metal]] band [[Watain]], also Swedish, released an album with [[The Wild Hunt (Watain album)|the same title]]. German folk band [[Versengold]] released the song "Die wilde Jagt" in 2021, as the first single from their 2022 album ''Was kost die Welt''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.versengold.com/diskografie|title=Versengold Diskografie|website=www.versengold.com|access-date=8 October 2023|language=de}}</ref> English [[doom metal]] band, [[Green Lung]], have a song called “Hunters in the Sky”on their 2023 album This Heathen Land.

=== Comics ===
The Wild Hunt appears in [[Marvel Comics]], primarily the ''[[Thor (Marvel Comics)|Thor]]'' series, and is led by [[Malekith the Accursed]], the [[Dökkálfar and Ljósálfar|Dark Elf]] King of [[Svartalfheim]] and one of Thor's archenemies.

In [[Mike Mignola]]'s comic book series [[Hellboy]], two versions of the Wild Hunt myth are present. In ''[[Hellboy: The Wild Hunt|The Wild Hunt]]'', the hero receives an invitation from British noblemen to partake in a giant hunting called "The Wild Hunt", after the legend of "[[Herne the Hunter|Herne]], god of the Hunt".<ref>{{cite book | first=Mike | last=Mignola | year= 2010 | title=Hellboy. Vol. 9: The Wild Hunt | publisher=Dark Horse Comics | isbn=978-1-59582-431-8}}</ref> In ''[[Hellboy: The Right Hand of Doom|King Vold]]'', Hellboy encounters "King Vold, the flying huntsman" whose figure is based on the Norwegian folktale of "The Flying Huntsman (headless King Volmer and his hounds)" according to Mignola.<ref>{{cite book | first=Mike | last=Mignola | year=2006 | title=Hellboy. Vol. 4: The Right Hand of Doom | publisher=Dark Horse Comics | isbn=978-1-59307-093-9 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/hellboy0000mign }}</ref>

The Wild Hunt was adapted for the Grace Note portion of ''[[The Case Files of Lord El-Melloi II]]'' anime adaptation with the 4th and 5th episodes where Lord El-Melloi II (voiced by [[Daisuke Namikawa]]) helps a fellow magus teacher by the name of Wills Pelham Codrington (voiced by [[Tomoaki Maeno]]) in a case involving his father's home where the leylines have become unstable. It is there they encounter Black Dogs, the incarnation of lightning who have been killing people in the vicinity. With the help of his allies, Wills, and a fairy they encounter names Faye, Lord El-Melloi II manages to solve the case and avert the threat.

=== Film and television ===
Episode 5 of the BBC series shown in 1958/9, [[Quatermass and the Pit]], written by [[Nigel Neale]], was entitled ''The Wild Hunt'' and made frequent mention of the myths described here.

[[The Wild Hunt (film)|''The Wild Hunt'']] is a Canadian horror drama film of 2009 by director [[Alexandre Franchi]].

The [[MTV]] series ''[[Teen Wolf (2011 TV series)|Teen Wolf]]'' features the Wild Hunt as the main villains of the first half of season 6. It takes the legend a bit further, claiming that the Wild Hunt erases people from existence, and those taken by the Wild Hunt become members after they are erased and forgotten.<ref>{{cite web|title='Teen Wolf' season 6: What is the Wild Hunt and who are the Ghost Riders?|url=http://www.hypable.com/teen-wolf-season-6-ghost-riders-explained/|access-date=6 July 2017|date=2016-11-19}}{{Dead link|date=May 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

The Wild Hunt features heavily in Netflix's ''[[Little Witch Academia]]'' episode "Sky War Stanship", in which the main protagonist Akko Kagari and Constanze Amalie Von Braunschbank Albrechtsberger partake in the hunt itself.

=== Literature ===
In [[J. R. R. Tolkien|J.R.R. Tolkien]]'s ''[[The Hobbit]]'', while traveling through Mirkwood, the dwarves and Bilbo encounter a deer running through the forest, which knocks Bombur into the enchanted river. After they pull him out, they hear far off the sound of a "great hunt" and the baying of dogs going past them.

In [[The Deluge (novel)|The Deluge]] (1886) by [[Henryk Sienkiewicz]], the motif of the Wild Hunt appears, as a hellish procession of Teutonic knights rushing through the night sky, heralding war and extraordinary disasters.

The description of the Wild Hunt also appears in the drama [[The Wedding (1901 play)|Wesele (The Wedding)]], by [[Stanisław Wyspiański]]. It is described as a race of large knights across the night sky at great speed.

The hunt plays an important role in four of [[Jim Butcher]]'s [[The Dresden Files|Dresden Files]] novels: (2005 ''[[Dead Beat (The Dresden Files)|Dead Beat]]'', 2006 ''[[Proven Guilty (The Dresden Files)|Proven Guilty]]'', 2012 ''[[Cold Days (The Dresden Files)|Cold Days]]'' and 2020 ''[[Battle Ground (The Dresden Files)|Battle Ground]]''), In Butcher's cosmos, Santa Claus and Odin are the same being. He shares leadership of the hunt with the Goblin King.

Αustralian writer [[Tim Winton]]'s ''[[The Riders]] (1994),'' which was shortlisted for the 1995 [[Booker Prize]], mentions a vision of the Wild Hunt that becomes the basis for the main character's own 'wild hunt' of the story.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Fiction of Tim Winton: Earthed and Sacred|page=42|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZlsUDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA42|isbn=9781743325032|last1=McCredden|first1=Lyn|date=2017-02-08|publisher=Sydney University Press }}</ref>

The Wild Hunt features in ''[[The Witcher]]'' series of fantasy novels by [[Andrzej Sapkowski]], published in English between 2007 and 2018.

The Wild Hunt also features as a fey phenomenon in Larry Correa's "[[Monster Hunter International]]" series in Siege, published in 2017.

The Wild Hunt has appeared in various publications,{{sfnm|1a1=Greenwood|1y=2008|1p=216|2a1=Bramwell|2y=2009|2p=42}} among them [[Alan Garner]]'s 1963 novel ''[[The Moon of Gomrath]]'',{{sfnm|1a1=Greenwood|1y=2008|1p=216|2a1=Bramwell|2y=2009|2p=42}} [[Uladzimir Karatkievich]]'s ''[[King Stakh's Wild Hunt]]'',<ref>{{Cite web |title=King Stakh's Wild Hunt |url=https://glagoslav.com/shop/king-stakhs-wild-hunt-by-uladzimir-karatkevich/}}</ref> [[Penelope Lively]]'s 1971 ''The Wild Hunt of Hagworthy'',{{sfn|Bramwell|2009|p=42}} [[Susan Cooper]]'s 1973 ''[[The Dark is Rising]]'',{{sfn|Bramwell|2009|p=42}} [[Diana Wynne Jones]]' 1975 ''Dogsbody'',{{sfn|Bramwell|2009|p=42}} [[Brian Bates (psychologist)|Brian Bates]]' 1983 ''[[The Way of Wyrd]]'',{{sfn|Greenwood|2008|p=216}} [[Guy Gavriel Kay]]'s [[Fionavar]] trilogy (1984–1986), the third issue of [[Seanan McGuire]]'s series [[October Daye]], ''An Artificial Night,'' [[Fred Vargas]]'s 2011 ''The Ghost Riders of Ordebec'', [[Laurell K. Hamilton]]’s book ''[[Mistral's Kiss]] (2006)'' and [[Jane Yolen]]'s 1995 ''The Wild Hunt''.{{sfn|Bramwell|2009|p=50}} It also features in [[Cassandra Clare]]'s book series, [[The Mortal Instruments|The Mortal instruments]] (2007-2014) and ''[[The Dark Artifices]] (2016-2018)'', led by [[Gwyn ap Nudd]].{{sfn|Bramwell|2009|p=51}} The ''[[Wicked Lovely]]'' series (2007-2013) by [[Melissa Marr]] contains a modern Wild Hunt. It is also a major plot point in [[Peter S. Beagle]]'s ''Tamsin''. The Wild Hunt is a primary element of [[R. S. Belcher]]'s novel ''[[The Brotherhood of the Wheel]]'' and [[Raymond E. Feist]]'s 1988 novel ''[[Faerie Tale]]''. The Wild Hunt is also an important plot point in the Gilded Duology by [[Marissa Meyer]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gilded |date=26 February 2021 |url=https://www.marissameyer.com/gilded/}}</ref>
In Clive Barker's novel ''Coldheart Canyon'', the story is centered around a bizarre version of The Wild Hunt. Also in Sharyn McCrummb's novel ''GhostRiders'', The Wild Hunt is depicted by Civil War soldiers who are constantly reliving the war.

In [[Lucy Hounsom|Lucy Holland’s]] 2024 historical fantasy novel ''Song of the Huntress'', the Wild Hunt appears with a gender-swapped version of mythical Britonic [[Herla|King Herla]] as its leader, who has been tricked into taking on that role by [[Gwyn ap Nudd]], king of the [[Celtic Otherworld|Otherworld]].

=== Games ===
The hunt is featured in [[CD Projekt Red]]'s 2015 [[role-playing video game]] ''[[The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt]]'', based on the books, after being referenced heavily during the events and flashbacks of ''[[The Witcher (video game)|The Witcher]]'' and ''[[The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings]]''. It reveals to be an army of elven conquerors who seek to conquer the world of The Witcher in order to save themselves from a self-spreading spell known as the White Frost, which freezes the worlds and devastates them.<ref>{{cite web |last=Senior |first=Tom |date=2015-05-22 |title=How The Witcher 3 puts misery back into mythology |url=http://www.pcgamer.com/how-the-witcher-3-puts-misery-back-into-mythology/ |access-date=2016-04-03 |work=[[PC Gamer]] |quote=The skull-faced Wild Hunt are derived from the European folk villains of the same name.}}</ref>

In the original Advanced ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' (1st Edition) expansion "Deities and Demigods" the Wild Hunt is represented under the Celtic Mythos sections as the Master of the Hunt and the Pack of the Wild Hunt. Players risk a chance of becoming the hunted, or may be compelled to join the Hunt and track down the source of the evil that summoned it, or if that evil isn't found, participate in the slaughter of an innocent person or large game animal, potentially against their alignment and will.<ref>Ward, James M. and Robert J. Kuntz. Deities & Demigods Cyclopedia, edited by Lawrence Schick, TSR Games,1980.</ref>

In ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' series of [[role-playing video game]]s, the Wild Hunt is a ritual performed by the Bosmer (wood elves) for war, vengeance, or other times of desperation. The elves are transformed into a horde of horrific creatures that kill all in their path. The Daedric Lord Hircine also performs a Wild Hunt ritual more similar to the wild hunt of folklore. This ritual was renamed to the "Great hunt" with the release of [[The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Wild_Hunt |title=Lore: Wild Hunt |work=The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages |date=2018-10-21 |access-date=2018-11-06}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Lore:Great Hunt - The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages (UESP) |url=https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Great_Hunt |access-date=2025-01-05 |website=en.uesp.net |language=en}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=September 2023|reason=WP:USERGENERATED|certain=y}}

The Wild Hunt is heavily featured and elaborated on in the [[Obsidian Entertainment]] video game, [[Pentiment (video game)|Pentiment]].

In [[Assassin's Creed Valhalla]] it was featured in the seasonal themed update "Oskoreia Festival".

In [[Limbus Company]], the Wild Hunt appears in the third part of the sixth main chapter of the game. It is composed of multiple versions of the chapter's minor antagonists, those being the residents and staff of [[Wuthering Heights]], the chapter's literary source, led by an alternate, parallel world version of the playable character [[Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights)|Heathcliff]]. In the story, his motive for creating the Wild Hunt was to take revenge on the residents of Wuthering Heights across all other alternate worlds, while also hunting down and killing every other version of himself in order to ensure the happiness of every [[Catherine Earnshaw|Catherine]].

In the action RPG game [[Genshin Impact]], the Wild Hunt appears as an enemy type in the region of Nod-Krai. They are said to be former humans that were cursed and transformed into a powerful manifestation of the Abyss, and are led by Rerir, one of the Five Sinners of Khaenri'ah.

==See also==
* [[Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse]]
* [[Herne the Hunter]]
* [[Hemann]]
* The [[Lampad]]es
* ''[[Hyakki Yagyō]]''
* [[List of ghosts]]
* [[Mallt-y-Nos]], a Welsh version of the legend
* [[Moss people]], wood spirits serving as typical prey of the wild hunt in parts of Germany.
* [[Nightmarchers]]
* [[Valkyrie]]
* [[Türst]]
* [[Flying Dutchman]]
* [[Chasse-galerie|Flying Canoe]]

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==

===Footnotes===
{{Reflist|30em}}

===Bibliography===
{{Refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
* <!-- B --> {{cite journal |title=The Wild Hunt? |last=Banks |first=M.M. |year=1944 |journal=Folklore |volume=55 |number=1 |pages=42 |jstor=1257629|doi=10.1080/0015587x.1944.9717708}}
* {{cite journal |title=On a Possible Version of the Wild Hunt Legend in North Lincolnshire|author-link1=Peter Blannin Gibbons Binnall |last=Binnall |first=Peter B. G. |journal=Folklore |volume=46 |number=1 |year=1935 |pages=80–84 |jstor=1257360|doi=10.1080/0015587x.1935.9718586}}
* {{cite book |last=Bramwell |first=Peter |year=2009 |title=[[Pagan Themes in Modern Children's Fiction: Green Man, Shamanism, Earth Mysteries]] |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=New York |isbn=978-0-230-21839-0}}
* {{cite book|last=Briggs|first=Katherine M.|date=1967|title=The Fairies in English Tradition and Literature|location=London|publisher=University of Chicago Press}}
* {{cite book|last=Briggs|first=Katharine M.|date=1978|title=An Encyclopedia of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Brownies, Boogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures|publisher=Pantheon Books|isbn=0-394-73467-X}}
* <!-- D --> {{Cite journal|last=Du Berger|first=Jean|date=1979|title=Chasse-galerie et voyage|url=https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/SCL/article/view/7920|journal=Studies in Canadian Literature|language=en|volume=4|issue=2|issn=1718-7850}}
* {{cite book |title=Dreamtime: Concerning the Boundary between Wilderness and Civilization |last=Duerr |first=Hans Peter |translator=Felicitas Goodman |year=1985 |orig-year=1978 |publisher=Blackwell |location=Oxford and New York |isbn= 978-0-631-13375-9}}
* <!-- G --> {{cite book |title=Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath |last=Ginzburg |first=Carlo |translator=Raymond Rosenthal |year=1990 |publisher=Hutchinson Radius |location=London |isbn=9780091740245}}
* {{cite book |title=Teutonic Mythology: Volume I |last=Grimm |first=Jacob |translator=James Steven Stallybrass |year=2004a |orig-year=1883 |publisher=Dover |location=Mineola }}
* {{cite book |title=Teutonic Mythology: Volume III |last=Grimm |first=Jacob |translator=James Steven Stallybrass |year=2004b |orig-year=1883 |publisher=Dover |location=Mineola }}
* {{cite encyclopedia |contribution=The Wild Hunt: A Mythological Language of Magic |last=Greenwood |first=Susan |editor1=James R. Lewis |editor2=Murphy Pizza |title=Handbook of Contemporary Paganism |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden |year=2008 |pages=195–222}}
* <!-- H --> {{cite journal |title=Ghost Riders in the Sky |last=Houston |first=Susan Hilary |year=1964 |journal=Western Folklore |volume=23 |number=3 |pages=153–162 |jstor=1498899|doi=10.2307/1498899}}
* {{cite journal |title=The Wild Hunt and the Witches' Sabbath |last=Hutton |first=Ronald |year=2014 |journal=Folklore |volume=125 |number=2 |pages=161–178|doi=10.1080/0015587x.2014.896968|url=http://research-information.bristol.ac.uk/files/38162196/WildHunt_first_edit.pdf |hdl=1983/f84bddca-c4a6-4091-b9a4-28a1f1bd5361 |s2cid=53371957 |hdl-access=free }}
* <!-- K --> {{cite journal |title=Myth in Action? Figurative Images on Ceramics as a Source for Studying the Pre-Christian Beliefs of Western Slavs |last=Kajkowski |first=Kamil |year=2020 |journal=Studia Mythologica Slavica |volume=23 |pages=7–34|doi=10.3987/SMS2020230|doi-broken-date=12 July 2025 |url=https://www.academia.edu/44145123}}
*{{Cite book|last=Kershaw|first=Priscilla K.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MbdQPgAACAAJ|title=The One-eyed God : Odin and the (Indo-)Germanic Männerbünde|date=1997|publisher=Journal of Indo-European Studies|isbn=978-0941694742|series=Monograph Series|volume=36}}
* <!-- L -->{{cite book |title=Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead |last=Lecouteux |first=Claude |translator=Jon E. Graham |publisher=Inner Traditions |location=Rochester |year=2011 |isbn=9781594774362}}
* <!-- M --> {{cite journal |title=On the Use of the Uncanny in Ritual |last=Morgain |first=Rachel |year=2012 |journal=Religion |volume=42 |number=2 |pages=521–548|doi=10.1080/0048721x.2012.707802|hdl=1885/71863 |s2cid=143548812 |hdl-access=free }}
* {{cite journal |title=The Winter Goddess: Percht, Holda, and Related Figures |last=Motz |first=Lotte |year=1984 |journal=Folklore |volume=95 |number=2 |pages=151–166 |jstor=1260199|doi=10.1080/0015587x.1984.9716309}}
* <!-- S --> {{cite book|last=Schön|first=Ebbe|date=2004|title=Asa-Tors hammare : gudar och jättar i tro och tradition|location=Stockholm|publisher=Hjalmarson & Högberg|isbn=91-89660-41-2}}
* <!-- V --> {{cite encyclopedia |last=Valentsova |first=Marina M. |editor1-last=Lajoye |editor1-first=Patrice |editor2-last=Zochios |editor2-first=Stamatis |title=Slavic demonology. A brief survey |encyclopedia=New Researches on the religion and mythology of the Pagan Slavs 2 |url=https://www.academia.edu/105259755 |date=2023 |publisher=Lingva |location=Lisieux, France |pages=265–289}}
* <!-- W --> {{cite book|last=Westwood|first=Jennifer|date=1985|title=Albion. A Guide to Legendary Britain|location=London|publisher=Grafton Books|isbn=0-246-11789-3}}
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
* Moricet, Marthe. "Récits et contes des veillées normandes". In: ''Cahier des Annales de Normandie'' n° 2, 1963. Récits et contes des veillées normandes. pp.&nbsp;3–210 [177-194]. {{doi|10.3406/annor.1963.3587}}
* Jean-Claude Schmitt, ''Ghosts in the Middle Ages: The Living and the Dead in Medieval Society'' (1998), {{ISBN|0-226-73887-6}} and {{ISBN|0-226-73888-4}}
* Carl Lindahl, John McNamara, John Lindow (eds.) ''Medieval Folklore: A Guide to Myths, Legends, Tales, Beliefs, and Customs'', Oxford University Press (2002), p.&nbsp;432f. {{ISBN|0-19-514772-3}}
* [[Otto Höfler]], ''Kultische Geheimbünde der Germanen'', Frankfurt (1934).
* Ruben A. Koman, 'Dalfser Muggen'. – Bedum: Profiel. – With a summary in English, (2006).
* Margherita Lecco, Il Motivo della Mesnie Hellequin nella Letteratura Medievale, Alessandria (Italy), Edizioni dell'Orso, 2001
* HUTTON, RONALD. "THE HOSTS OF THE NIGHT." In: ''The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present''. NEW HAVEN; LONDON: Yale University Press, 2017. pp.&nbsp;120–46. Accessed March 14, 2021. {{doi|10.2307/j.ctv1bzfpmr.11}}.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Wild Hunt}}
* {{Cite Americana|wstitle=Wild Hunt |short=x}}
* {{usurped|[https://web.archive.org/web/20040925051146/http://www.endicott-studio.com/rdrm/forhunt.html Ari Berk and William Spytma, "Penance, Power, and Pursuit: On the Trail of the Wild Hunt"]}}
* [http://www.orkneyjar.com/tradition/hunt.htm The Wild Hunt in Orcadian traditional legend at ''Orkneyjar'']
* {{cite journal|url=http://whitedragon.org.uk/articles/hunt.htm|first=Liam|last=Rogers|title=The Wild Hunt|issue=Samhain 1999|journal=White Dragon}}
* [http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/huntsman.html Legends of the Wild Hunt] by [[D. L. Ashliman]]

{{Odin}}
{{German folklore}}
{{Hunting topics}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Wild Hunt| ]]
[[Category:Medieval legends]]
[[Category:Hunting]]
[[Category:Supernatural legends]]
[[Category:Literary motifs]]
[[Category:Recurring elements in folklore]]