by Kacey Stapleton

Created on: September 30, 2010

Something about cold, dark nights stir memories of stories only half remembered. The Wild Hunt is a legend most can feel stirring just out of range of their consciousness. It sounds so familiar, but who can truly say they recall this legend. In the modern mind, the images still linger. Horses locked in a phantom race. Moonlight casting a silvery sheen on each limb’s straining muscle as they surge forward with a supernatural grace and speed. The grim riders their faces masks of madden fury. Deep and eager voices urging on their eerie ethereal hounds toward some unknown prey. The vision is still there, but the purpose and certainly, the rider’s warning is forgotten.

Of course, the reminders have cropped up through the generations. Echoes of this legend reverberate in Washington Irving’s The Headless Horseman, and Stan Jone’s often re-recorded song Ghost Riders in the Sky. The lyrics of Jim Morrison’s Riders on the Storm also contain a few fading images of the Wild Hunt as well. The history of this never-ending nocturnal hunt goes back to a much older time. 

Odin was a god to be feared and honored, but he played a pivotal role in Norse Mythology. Fury or frenzy is thought of in association with Odin’s name, and certainly his style.  God of not only battle and magic, but also wisdom and poetry he presided over all aspects of life requiring intense willpower and imagination.  

Usually when Odin roamed the Earth he traveled in the guise of an old man in a blue cloak, the wide brim of his hat covering the tell-tale quirk of having only one eye. Often he rode Sleipnir an eight-legged horse with the power to travel across air or water at fantastic speeds.  It is with Odin that the legend of the Wild Hunt begins.  

A sure sign of Odin’s passing was a storm. In some Germanic myths the god sped by gathering up the souls of the dead amidst the thunder and lighting, in others there were different purposes of the hunt. Any unfortunate living soul seeing the horses, riders, and hounds bearing down upon the path was warned not to run, but lie face down, eyes covered or risk being swept up by the riders.  

A traveler’s need to fear such an encounter began on October 31st and continued until April 30th or the eve of May.  Both October 31st and April 30th held a unique danger.  On those nights, spirits and creatures of the other worlds roamed freely. The unwary were most likely to find themselves in the path of the hunters on the night of the midwinter festival or Yule on December 21st. 

Outside of the Norse influence, other countries have variations of this legend. Gwynn ap Nudd or the Lord of the Dead led the hunt in Wales, while in other parts of the world the hunters including their leader are fairy folk. As time went on the list of possible leaders of the hunt grew. Well-known rulers such as Charlemagne, and legendary heroes like King Arthur became the primary phantom horseman.  

Where there is agreement among the variations of the legend is that seeing the Wild Hunt is not a good omen. The traveler who encounters them is lucky to survive, but he carries with him the bad news the rider’s presence carry. Death, strife, war, and chaos were certain to follow the sighting of these hunters who forever ride the skies.  

Even in the stories most recent incarnations, this holds true. Stan Jone’s Ghost Riders in the Sky are cowboys doomed to forever chase the devil’s herd.  They warn a solitary witness to change his ways or join them in their eternal futile pursuit of the hellish stampede across the heavens.

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