For whom it might concern: I wrote a guest article on the Wild Hunt in Central European folklore - one that tries to be a bit more nuanced than “The Wild Huntsman is really Odin in disguise!”.
EDIT: Gah, I thought I had included a link! It should be fixed now.
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Fantastic work.
Always good to highlight the enormous diversity that exists within wild hunt/spirit procession traditions.
Edit: I also appreciate that you still recognise Odin as an inspiration for some wild hunt traditions. I feel like many writers react to the focus on Odin by denying that he appears at all.
There are a number of tales - Wild Hunt or otherwise - where there is an explicit mention of a “Wode”. I don’t think linking that to Wodan/Odin is too much of a stretch.
Still, the connections to Hulda are far more numerous, which I find fascinating. I mean, in modern discussions you almost never hear of the Wild Hunt being led by a woman, yet I have encountered quite a few such tales.
There are some traditions from Sweden that are very explicit in referring to him as “Odin” or “Oden”, both in a wild hunt type spirit but also as a receiver of a harvest offering.
»det är Odens jagt,» »det är Oden, som är ute och jagar»; »det är Odens hundar, som höras i luften»
Härvid pålyste eller tillsade bonden alltid uttryckligen, att »detta skall Oden ha till sina hästar» eller »detta får vara åt Odens hästar». Underlät någon detta offer till Odens hästar, så troddes han få till straff, att åt året på sin äng erhålla en dålig gräs-skörd.
id något okändt buller, liksom af vagnar och hästar om nätterna, heter det att Oden far förbi
The exact source should be this book but I haven’t been able to find the section (it’s in latin)
äfven i Skåne och Blekinge, der bonden vid skörden brukade att lemna qvar en kärfve på åkern åt Odens hästar
Wode from northern Germany is also described in some accounts as receiving an offering. The earliest description of a harvest offering to Wode is from 1593, by Nicolas Gruse. Or in this book from 1753, by David Franck.
This article here describes some traditions from Jutland where he is referred to with various names, some are “Wojen”, Woen" and “Wold” though they vary a lot. And in these traditions the rider can be portrayed both as the wild hunter and receive some sort of offering or ritual, though much less often. In the end, the article argues that the Swedish, Danish and North-German traditions are related due to their similarities and that Odin appears in many of the traditions.
Thanks for this information!
The way I see it, folk tales are basically a bundle of narrative tropes that can be switched out depending on the needs of the storyteller. So when the Wild Hunt narrative spread across Europe, people always tried to make it relevant to their local region. And in regions where there were still fragments of belief in Odin, it is not surprising that he appeared in one form or another - while in others, the Wild Hunt takes on rather stranger forms.
Ultimately, their main commonality is the strange noises you can hear in the countryside at night.
Aren’t you giving us at least a wild hint of what else it covers?
Sorry, I accidentally deleted the link to the article. You should be able to check it out now!
It was just a friendly jab at the typo in your title.
Curse this mobile interface!
Amen
Is there a link to your article? 🙃
Sorry, I messed up the link. It should be fixed now.
