The full moon shone from a cloudless sky, illuminating the young spring forest, buried in creeping fog, and played with reflections on the new, green foliage of the giant trees. An oppressive silence reigned here, not a sound was heard, only the silent beauty of nature stretched as far as the eye could see. The wind also died down, stopping its favorite game with thin young branches and giving way to a motionless picture of the night forest. There were no clouds, the sky rose clear and dark, decorated only with the cold and distant lights of the stars. An invisible but bone-chilling cold disturbed the fresh night air, as if winter itself had contributed its frosty breath. The forest grasses shook, dazzling white frost slowly crawled along the stems and leaves, instantly freezing them. The recently opened buds of fragrant night flowers obediently sank down under its weight, not daring to defy the cold elements. Like a pestilence or an infection, the White Frost spread across the earth, painting everything around with dazzling silver. The ground instantly hardened and froze. Coming literally out of nowhere, the drifting snow picked up small fragments of ice and stirred up the dying vegetation under the whiteness that covered it. The once green crowns rustled heavily, as if trying to get rid of the cover of frost that had covered them. The ice crust slid like a snake along a sluggishly flowing stream that flowed into a mountain river. The ice rapidly spread across the entire width of the stream, like a black vice that sprouted in the heart of a person, and then spread through darkness and captured the host’s body forever. Ice bound the river. Not a single drop dared to move anymore, mingling with the others, the seething noise of the stream did not sound - what was left of it was smooth, like a mirror carved from proud cold silver. A horse's tramp was heard just within earshot. Just beginning their life journey, coastal herbs and flowers fell to the ground in an expression of humility, as if recognizing the power of the rightful masters of the night. The owners who now visited their properties so often. The horse's gait echoed from the nearby rocks, multiplying the clatter of the hooves of ghostly horses a hundredfold, creating the illusion of an entire army, and not a detachment, forcing nature to recognize their power over itself, forcing them to obediently accept their power. The wind rose and then subsided, not daring to disturb the sounds of Gon. The nostrils of the ethereal skeletal horses flared, as if they had been galloping for several hours, their hooves were tearing up the ground, but after a second or two the tracks disappeared, hiding the very presence of the riders. Dense, white, cold steam poured out from them, the black figures stood out as a bright spot against the background of the surrounding whiteness, which frantically reached out to them with deathly cold hands, framing the armor with an icy edge. The snowstorm was their companion, the night itself lay like a cloak on their shoulders - a cloak painted with moonlight highlights. The wind followed in front of them, whipping up frost. It soared upward, obeying the rough aura of power of the newcomers, and fell on the muzzles of the horses and the dark helmets of the aliens that covered their faces. Obeying the bizarre play of light and shadow, the faces of death were hidden on the metal. The horsemen raced quickly and swiftly. Their goal was already close. The Wild Hunt followed its prey.
"Wild Hunt" This is a cavalcade of ghost hunters on horses and dogs. The phenomenon comes from Norse and Teutonic mythology. On stormy nights, God Odin, at the head of horsemen, gallops across the sky with a pack of barking dogs.
His retinue rushes around the earth, feasting and scattering garbage. Anyone who has the misfortune of meeting them will immediately go to another country. And whoever speaks foolishly is doomed to death.
Norwegian Wild Hunt - Aasgaardsreya- represents an army consisting of the spirits of the dead who have not done enough good to deserve a place in heaven, but have not done enough evil to be sent to hell. It includes drunkards, brawlers, lovers of obscene songs, skilled deceivers - and those who broke their oath for the sake of money. As punishment, they were doomed to wander until the end of the world.
The army is led by Guro-Risse or Reisa-Rova with a long tail, by which she is easily distinguished from the rest. Behind her rides a multitude of people of both sexes. When viewed from the front, these creatures appear tall and beautiful - both riders and their horses - but at the end of this procession nothing can be seen except the long tail of Gouraud-Risse.
The horses of this army are black as coal; their eyes glow in the dark like fire. Horses are controlled using hot rods and iron reins. The screams of the horsemen create such a terrible noise that it can be heard on long distance. They move on the water surface as easily as on land.
The horses' hooves barely touch the surface of the water. If they throw their saddle onto the roof of any house, one of its inhabitants must die. Where Aasgaardsrei's army is positioned on the ledge above the door, there will be a fight or murder in a drunken brawl. For the time being, they behave calmly, but as soon as a horse neighs or the bridle rings, a fight begins and a murder occurs.
This army goes on the detour mainly after Christmas, when large drunken brawls occur. When any man hears this host approaching, he must give way to them and fall face down as if sleeping, for otherwise he will be seized and either dragged away or left somewhere far away in a distraught state.
The person who takes precautions will get away with being spat on by passing hunters. When they pass him, he must spit in his turn; otherwise he will suffer some physical damage later.
The Wild Hunt has many leaders, both men and women. In legends Northern Germany their leader is the woman Holda (Holde, Hulda, Holle and Holte) - the goddess of the hearth and motherhood. In Southern Germany she is traditionally called Bertha (Berchta, Perchta), the name by which the Norse goddess Frigga is known. Bertha means "shining one." She is associated with the moon and guards the souls of unbaptized children.
Bertha's association with the moon led to her identification with Diana, the Roman goddess of the moon, so Diana may also be leading the wild hunt. Her night watch punishes the lazy and vicious, but if food is left in front of the doors, they will eat it, and then it will appear again - before they move on.
After the Reformation and the abolition of purgatory by Protestants, the Wild Hunt became the lot of the unbaptized dead, especially children. Those who were not baptized could not be buried in consecrated ground, but were buried in the northern part of the church fence, where they were believed to remain underground. They became fun for the dogs of the Wild Hunt, who drove them to hell.
Wild hunting also exists in English tales. In them, the procession is led by Henry the Hunter, or simply the devil. As Christianity spread, pagan gods were reduced to the level of demons and the devil.
During the witch hunts of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, it was believed that the retinue of the Wild Hunt included not only the spirits of the dead, but also witches and that it was led by Hecate, the Greek goddess of the dark side of the moon, the patroness of witches.
The Wild Hunt can also be led by English national heroes, such as Sir Francis Drake, who, accompanied by demons and headless dogs, rushes through the countryside from Tevistock to Plymouth in Devon, not on horseback, but in a ghostly carriage or hearse.
The Cornish version of the Wild Hunt are the Dandy Devil's dogs, which race on or over the ground and hunt the souls of men. Documents from the 12th century state that the number of hunters was twenty to thirty, and that they rode black horses and black deer. With them are black dogs with terrible shiny eyes. From St. Petersburg to Sam Hain in England, monks hear the sounds of hunting all night - dogs bark, hunting horns blow.
The last reports of the Wild Hunt date back to the middle of the last century - it swept across the expanses of Samhain on the eve of every church holiday. Witnesses were encouraged to prostrate themselves to the ground and recite prayers to save their souls from the jaws of the dogs of hell.
...So - Wild Hunt
It is a terrible night when a pack of ghostly, fiery-eyed dogs stalking their prey passes, silently walking through the air, over cities and forests, fields and rivers. The night is terrible when the sound of a horn intertwines with the howl of the wind and furious screams beaters. The night is terrible when the Wild Hunter pursues his game...
The legend of the Wild Hunt can be found wherever the Celts and Germans have ever lived - that is, throughout central, northern and northwestern Europe, from insular Britain to Germany, and it is not entirely clear which of these two peoples is "author of the idea" The common name is Wild Hunt - found everywhere - Wild Hunt, Die Wilde Jagd, Wilde Heer, but there are also many local and/or later names, for example, Welsh Cŵn Annwn (hounds of Annwn), Herod's hunt, Cain's hunt, Gabriel's hounds, Asgardreya, etc. In addition, in every area where this legend took root, it was transformed in one way or another, adapting to local beliefs, and there are a great many nuances in the description of the Wild Hunt.
Sometimes the role of the Hunter is played by a god - Wotan, Gwyn-ap-Nuud, Manannan mac Llyr or Arawn. Sometimes a lady also appears: the Celtic Niav, daughter of Manannan, or the Germanic Holle-Hel.
In other cases, the Hunter becomes some semi-mythical, semi-historical person, always, however, related to both the world of the living and the other world: for example, sometimes a wild race is led by King Arthur - neither alive nor dead, belonging, according to the most famous legend, to his death, two worlds at once, and the world of the living and Annuin, or the British king Herla, who lost his time after visiting the wedding feast of the king of the other world, or Edric the Wild - who at one time married a maiden from the shi family, named Godda, who lost her by own negligence, and found again after death.
Among these heroes are Roland, and Sir Francis Drake, and Charlemagne, and Finn mac Cumal, and Dietrich of Berne, and Waldemar Atterdag, and even a certain Ian Trigeagle, a Cornish judge (17th century), who escaped from Hell and led the Wild Hunt.
Sometimes the Hunter is described as having horns, but there is not enough evidence to say whether he is related to Cernunnus or other horned gods of the Celts, or whether it is simply Christian ideas that the Hunter is the devil himself, and he is known to have this a piquant detail of appearance. On the other hand, the later myth of Herne the Hunter of Windsor Forest is clearly associated with the horned master of the forests of Britain. 
The Wild Hunt appears in the dark season, among the Celts - somewhere around Samhain, among the Germans - in winter, either before Yule or during Yuletide.
According to Afanasyev, who analyzed the German version of the myth, the Wild Hunt is poeticized and mythologized ideas about clouds and winds, thunderstorms and snowfalls that come at the end of autumn.
The game of Wodan the Hunter is beast-like clouds, and he is accompanied by dogs, ravens and lost souls - nachtvolk (night people), his scourge is the flash of lightning, the wind serves as support for the hooves of horses and inflates his cloak.
According to Chris Kershaw and Otto Hoefler, the Wild Hunt is an echo of the archaic customs of male unions among Gaelic and Germanic tribes, when squads of warrior-animals hunted down prey. Surviving fragments of similar customs survive in Britain, in the form of men's games and processions around the autumnal equinox.
But if we abstract a little from the purely historical roots of the image, and analyze only the image itself, we can identify the following general features of the Hunt.
1. Hunting appears in the dark season, when life recedes before the breath of winter.
2. It is guided by deities related to the other world and/or the world of the dead, or by people who have been abroad and have not been able to fully return to the world of the living.
3. The hunt comes from the direction of death - from the west or north (cf. Slua in Scottish beliefs).
4. You cannot look at the Wild Hunt - anyone who meets the Wild Hunter’s gaze dies or disappears; in some versions of the myth he dies on the spot, in some he is torn apart by dogs, in others he turns into a driven beast until the dogs catch up with him or until another animal is found, in others he simply joins the cavalcade forever.
5. Wild hunting is a harbinger of troubles and deaths. If it passes over a house, misfortune enters it; if many people see the hunt, it means that the coming disaster will affect many.
On the other hand, there are a number of several significant differences in the Germanic and Celtic worlds.
Among the Germans, meeting Wodan Jagd is certainly not a bad sign. The one who meets the Hunt in the fields and forests, and not under the roof of a house, and finds the courage to support the hunting cry of Wodan, will give up part of his prey, which in the light of the sun will turn into gold and silver. The fields over which Asgardreya was noticed will bring twice as much harvest. There are also a number of German moral tales where the Hunter severely punishes an unbeliever or sinner, after which he reforms. 
Among the Celts, the descriptions of the Wild Hunt are more similar to the description of the cavalcades of the Sids - then it is clear why it appears on the days of Samhain: this holiday divides the year into the time that belongs to people, the time when they cultivate the land and enjoy its fruits, and the time of the Sids - when the surface of the earth belongs to them. The hunt is led by any of the kings of Annuin - but Annuin is not only the world of the dead, it is the other world in general, the place of constant dominion of the shi. Of course, there is always a chance of getting caught up in the hills, but the risk here is more of being carried away after the riders and never returning home.
Well, of course, the Hunt is not the cause of the troubles that may happen; rather, it is just a harbinger. Among the island Celts, for example, there were widespread beliefs about shi-guardians of a family or locality, and that if something bad was about to happen, the guardian maiden would definitely appear and warn: either by her very appearance, or by crying, or, for Those who are completely incomprehensible will be voiced in plain text.
Both the Celts and the Germans have an ancient everyday motif, which to some extent correlates with wild hunting: the autumn rut of the best warrior-animals of the tribe of sacrificial game. In Britain, the tradition of playing for young men is still preserved - running after the leader. All unmarried men who can run long enough run into the forest after the strongest. There is no need to overtake him - just follow him, this is a kind of imitation of the running of a wolf pack. It is undesirable to get in their way - because they can beat you very seriously, but, judging by some marker customs, once upon a time a flock could have killed a random person they met. This is probably where the root of the idea that meeting the Hunt brings death lies.
In addition, one should distinguish between the archaic layer and the alluvial, Christian one: if the Hunt is an unconditional evil, and dogs raise the souls of unbaptized babies from their graves and drive them away like game... or if the one who sees the hunt dies on the spot and his soul will no longer be heaven is ordered, or the Hunter is a person not accepted by either hell or heaven, or if you can look at hunting, but it gives way to prayer, then you can definitely be sure that these are Christian layers that have taken root on the ancient earth.
We can talk separately about the dogs of the Wild Hunt. Among the Germanic peoples, where there were no special beliefs associated with dogs, they appear only insofar as, often in German descriptions, dogs do not even run ahead of Wodan Jagd, but follow it.
The Celts had an extensive system of beliefs about hill dogs, shi dogs or heather dogs on the one hand, and ghost dogs- guardians of the borders of the world of the dead and the world of the living on the other. That is why the Celts have much more stories about the hounds of the Wild Hunt than other tribes. It is curious that in different areas the dogs take on the features of different types of magical dogs: they can be the white and red hounds of Annuin, or the swamp green huge dogs hills, and coal-black, fiery-eyed or eyeless grims - guards of the edge and messengers of death.
Well, a few words about game. It is clear that lost - and, of course, unbaptized or sinful - souls as objects of hunting are already Christian layers.
The game of the Wild Hunt is generally mentioned infrequently, but among peoples of Germanic origin it is most often a boar or a deer, among the Celts it is a deer or a hare. All these are sacrificial animals and symbolize rebirth, rebirth and are often associated with dying and reborn gods.
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Knocknaray is a mountain in County Sligo, crowned with light colored stone. According to legend, Queen Medb is buried under the stone.
Clot-na-Bar - the name is traced back to Cailleah Beare, a hag from Bear. According to legend, she was so tired of her endless life that she walked for a long time throughout Britain, looking for a body of water deep enough for her immortality to drown in it. Walking from mountain to mountain, she found a suitable lake on the top of Bird Mountain in Sligo; its name is Loh Ya
(c) Shellir, 2008
William Yates, THE ARMY OF THE SEEDS
Horsemen gallop from Knock-na-Ray,
They rush over the grave of Klot-na-Bar,
Kailte burns like a fire,
And Niav calls out: Hurry, hurry!
Throw mortal dreams out of your heart,
Leaves are spinning, horses are flying,
The wind blows my hair back,
Fiery eyes, pale faces.
The phantom gallop is furious,
Whoever saw us disappeared forever:
He will forget what he dreamed of,
He will forget everything he lived before.
They jump and call in the darkness of the night,
And there is no more terrible and beautiful spell;
Kailte burns like a fire,
And Niav calls loudly: Hurry!
In the folklore of the peoples of Western Europe, the Wild Hunt is a procession of the dead that rushes across the sky. When a monstrous roar is heard from the sky, trees in the forest begin to bend and fall to the ground, roofs are torn off houses - this means the Wild Hunt has begun. A cavalcade of ghostly creatures with a pack of dogs rushes across the sky; The cavalcade is led by the Wild Hunter - he is often identified with the Scandinavian god Odin. The Wild Hunter is also known as the Black Rider and many other names. A meeting with the Wild Hunt portends misfortune and even death.
A.N. Afanasyev writes:
“It often happens... that on a bright, quiet night a terrible roar is suddenly heard, the light of the month fades, whirlwinds raise a whistle, trees break and fall with a crash, and in a destructive storm the Wild Hunter rushes through the air - alone, or accompanied by a large train of spirits ... On a stately horse, white as milk, spewing flames from his nostrils and mouth, the ancient god gallops at the head of a huge retinue; his head is covered with a wide-brimmed hat; a cloak thrown over his shoulders flutters far in the wind... Sometimes a wild hunter. rides out not on horseback, but in a fiery chariot on horses breathing out flames: the chariot is driven by a charioteer, he loudly slams his whip and lightning sparks rain down after each blow.”
In pseudo-Welsh mythology, the Wild Hunt has a slightly different character than in medieval and Scandinavian legends. The Druids, who owned the secrets of transitions to the Lower World, could cause the Wild Hunt consciously, but it could appear to other people against their will. A meeting with the Wild Hunt did not always foreshadow trouble. In the Celtic tradition, the Wild Hunt and the Underworld were not of a demonic nature, although they could pose a danger to ordinary people. The Wild Hunt looked like this: white dogs with red ears (the characteristic colors of animals from the other world in the Celtic tradition) raced ahead of the riders with a loud bark. Among the riders there may be lower deities, elves and other mysterious creatures from the Other World. According to one version, the Wild Hunt is headed by the ruler of the Lower World, Arawn. In other versions of the legends, the leader of the Wild Hunt was Gwyn ap Nudd. Also among the leaders mentioned were Manavidan mab Hlir, the kings of the Fomorians, Bran the Blessed and many others.
The equivalent in Cornwall is Dando and his dogs.
Ghosts punish the vicious and lazy. If you leave food in front of the doors, the ghosts will eat it, but the food will appear again before the cavalcade of spirits moves on. It was believed that the unbaptized dead, especially children, became a sport for the dogs of the Wild Hunt, who drove them to hell.
* In the Middle Ages, it was believed that the retinue included witches and was led by Hecate, the goddess of the dark side of the Moon, the patron of witches.
* In the Cornish version of the legend, the Wild Hunt is the Dandy Devil's pack of dogs.
* Documents from the 12th century indicate that the number of horsemen is 20-30 and that they are riding black deer, or black horses, with scary black dogs.
* It is believed that last time The Wild Hunt was seen in the 1940s in Samhain on the eve of a church holiday.
IN different countries various personalities and mythological creatures were considered the leaders of the wild hunt procession.
* In Britain this is King Arthur
* In Denmark - Valdemar IV Atterdag
* In England - King Arthur, Henry the Hunter - one of the incarnations of the devil, or Edric the Wild
* In Scandinavia - Odin or Valdemar IV Atterdag
* In Germany - Wotan, Dietrich of Berne, Hanns von Haskelberg, Lady Golla, Precht or Gudrun.
* In Wales - Arawn or Gwyn ap Nud
* In France - Roland
* In Ireland - Fianna or Fann MacCool
As an oddity, there is information that once upon a time human languages liked to place historical characters such as Napoleon at the head of the Wild Hunt^^
Sources of information included Wikipedia, the portal celtica.ru, translations of Yeats by Grigory Kruzhkov.
Since ancient times, people have been afraid of many natural phenomena and gave them mystical descriptions. Over time, these phenomena found their explanation and justification, and the myths retreated a little to the side. But man was not able to give an explanation for all phenomena. And one of these phenomena is considered to be a string of creatures that sweep across the sky on the eve of great troubles and cataclysms. This is called the Wild Hunt or the Wild Rush - a phenomenon where the ghosts of the long dead gallop across the sky in search of prey and descend to earth to take it.
Origin and species
Wild hunting appears only on the eve of wars and disasters. And it is a combination of several types of creatures, which makes its classification very difficult. It is also impossible to establish how it appears; we only know what it precedes. In general, the vast majority of creatures of the Wild Hunt are ghosts, although there are exceptions.
Legends say that on the eve of cataclysms, the king gathers his retinue from all over the world and goes on a great hunt for human souls. Those people who are taken by the wild hunt become part of it, so among its representatives you can see people from a variety of tribes and peoples who, although they hunt together, hunt on their own.
Appearance
All references to the Wild Hunt agree on one thing and are terribly accurate in these similarities. First, a deafening howl is heard from afar, and then a line of ghostly horsemen rushes across the sky, accompanied by terribly huge hounds, who grab unwary people and carry them away after them. The hunt is always led by a king, whose description is identical in all stories about this phenomenon - a tall, stately and half-decayed corpse that rushes forward on a huge white horse.
Creatures involved in the hunt
The Wild Hunt begins with hounds - huge, horse-sized dogs, whose howls signal the approach of the king. These hounds are very diverse, some of them are similar to huskies, others are similar, and thirdly the features are guessable. But they all obey the king and strictly follow the direction he has chosen.
Following the hounds are the beaters, some on foot and some on horseback. They are the most diverse in the Wild Hunt. Their role seems insignificant - they attract attention, attract attention, sometimes chase victims, but they are never allowed to kill those very victims. Probably, the beaters are recruited from the victims of the previous hunt, and in the next they appear as hunters.
Hunters. The most ghostly figures that acquire similarities and common features with the king. If the beaters look like ordinary people, then the hunters have signs of decomposition on their bodies. They have the right to kill or detain victims for the king so that he can personally end the life of the most delicious victim.
King of the Wild Hunt. The most decomposed and most shadowy figure in this phenomenon. The descriptions mention that the king's cloak envelops the entire hunt and leaves behind it a long trail of a strange glow. The legends describe how “a pale horseman, on a pale horse,” probably in biblical mythology it was precisely this description that was assigned to one of the horsemen of the Apocalypse, “and the name of that horseman is death.” Considering the functions and conditions of this king's appearance in front of people, such a theory seems very true.
The Wild Hunt is a terrifying and terrible phenomenon, which, according to the chronicles, swept across the world twice. What adds horror to the study of chronicles is the realization of the fact that references to the Wild Hunt or a similar phenomenon are found everywhere and even date back to the same time. This phenomenon collects human souls and thus grows. But it may also be that, contrary to established opinion, the Wild Hunt saves these souls by taking them into its bosom and protecting them from a more terrible death.
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