You can also find this episode on Spotify, iTunes and Stitcher! You can find it at the links below: Spotify - open.spotify.com/episode/25stJHsQJ0hjKjRCVDACKj iTunes - podcasts.apple.com/lt/podcast/the-wild-hunt/id1514656609?i=1000531743776 Stitcher - www.stitcher.com/show/mythillogical-podcast/episode/the-wild-hunt-86043808
Very interesting piece. About 30 minutes in and you mention that there is no connection between the Wild Hunt and Greece/Rome... If I might interject a thought, Dionysus is worth a look. He is the Father of Lunacy, and did in fact have a "Wild Hunt" of sorts. He is also associated with Charon, the Ferryman of the River Styx. edit) figured I would add a little bit of context so as not to seem rude: "The cult of Dionysus is also a "cult of the souls"; his maenads feed the dead through blood-offerings, and he acts as a divine communicant between the living and the dead.[14] He is sometimes categorised as a dying-and-rising god."
1:00:01. The harvest fest tical/tival. Plasma possession. Everything around is are clues. We are in the labyrinth but very few even realize this prior to death theres days .... Such is the result of the Quorum of 1700 and the plans there of..
A quick correction, its been pointed out that the account we gave of Herodias does not correlate well with the account given in the gospels, it seems we mixed up a legend from a 12th century document called the Ysengrimus given by Claude Lecouteux with the actual Christian account. This is our bad for not using a primary source on this occasion and we will issue a full correction and explanation at the beginning of the next episode.
yes, it was actually Salome, Herodias' daughter who did an erotic dance for King Herod, her stepfather after he promised her anything. She did the dance, and then asked for the head of John The Baptist on a silver platter, and Herod reluctantly ordered it to be done.
Marriages song Salome deals with the it, it's also got a lot of famous paintings, definitely one of the more brutal and human aspects of the Gospels. Also Oscar Wilde wrote a one-act play extrapolating on the story and the dance Salome did.
Here in the Austrian Alps the Wild Hunt (germ. Wilde Jagd, dialect Wüde Gjoad) still is a very important part of life depending on the region. The leader of it is Frau Perchta and again depending on the regions and valleys also Wotan (Odin). The hunt itself takes place during the "rough nights" (Rauhnächte). Where I am from those begin with the day of St. Thomas which is the "Thomasnacht" (21st of December) marking the opening of the gates to the "otherworld", the realm of the demons and damned. The first creature stepping into our world then is the demon creature "Thomasbock", a billy goat like demon feeding on fear that runs through all the valleys and even through houses. We don't hang the washing up, ecspecially not the white one, since it is said that the demon would run into it and your house and kin would have to deal with its evil spirit for the next year. Then, again in most communities, on the 25th of December, right after Christmas, Perchta and her army of demons (mostly lesser gods) and spirits of dead children (unbaptized, drowned or just evil) come forth and will ride through the skies, on the rivers and streams and it is said over the house roofs for twelve days. On the last few of those days and nights (Jan. 4th-6th) we dress up like demons and try to get rid of Perchta and her spirits by to pretending to be part of theirs. Since Perchta is a mixture from Frigg and different regional mostly (pre-)Celtic godesses, in Carinthia and Styria probably also Slavic ones, the demon figures varry between most villages. However Perchta herself is described the same way in all of Bavarian folklore. She is the godess of two faces and sides, a beautiful one and an evil witchlike one. She is the godess of all fertility, punishment, witches, certain birds and dark ponds. Good people will see her as a beautiful young lady dressed in white but evil people, liars and sinners she will show her ugly and evil side. Together with Wotan she also is a godess of the dead, mostly children. When dressing up we try to cover most of the creatures and demons people in the respective region say are part of the Wild Hunt. We for example have Frau Perchta, horned demons, witches, death (Boandlkrama - Bone Grocer), different animal demons (chicken, bull, ram, wild hog...) and several good ones. The good ones mainly are meant to bring fertility, dance and wear masks depending on the region. Sorry for the long comment but maybe somebody is interested. Greetings from Western Austria!
This was really interesting thank you! I have some really funny childhood memories of this event and this gave me quite some context. Thanks a lot, will look up more!
The story of the woman on ember Friday (around 1hr 52mins) - the skeins she was boiling would have been skeins of wool and not skins as you suggested? After spinning wool, the yarn is twisted into skeins that are then scalded in hot water to "fix" the wool and prevet it from shrinking after being turned into fabric. Otherwise, all very very interesting.......
An old cowpoke went riding out one dark and windy day, upon a ridge he rested as he went along his way. When all at once a mighty herd of red-eyed cows he saw, A'plowin' through the ragged skies and up the cloudy draws....
I live just north of the Limes in Germany. Here there is also a connection to the old roman border (Teufelsmauer/Devil wall) and the "Wilde Jagd" (Wild Hunt). It can only travel on it, and in any houses build on it they have to open a window and the oven door in the "Rauhnächte"(12 days between Christmas and Epiphany), so that the wild hunt can travel through without damaging everything
@@Thomas-xd4cxThat's nice, this video isnt concerned with oral tradition though. Its concerned with the biased re-imagining of oral traditions, and laying out why it doesnt tie the traditions together in any meaningful way Ie. They arent treating it as a science, they're looking through it from a human-history (anthropology) lens, which ironically originates from the very forms of christian mysticism they discuss in the video.
The video is about the writings of a pre-medieval pseudo-anthropologist, and why his writing on The Wild Hunt in particular is false. The subject CONTAINS oral tradition, but the core focus is not oral tradition. By your logic, a peanut butter sandwich is a bread sandwich because it contains bread. Reading comprehension friend, find it.
I"ve heard some Asian myths that have processions of spirits. Some Hong Kong skyscrapers are made with holes in them called Dragon Gates to allow such processions.
1:53:00 : Since this story takes place in Feistritz, which is an Austrian small town (actually there also a few villages with the same name in the region) in the South of Carinthia within the mixed Slovenian-speaking (hence Slavic) and German-speaking area in Austria, it is no surprise that you will find a blending of the Germanic folk lore of the wild hunt with the Slavic folk lore of Baba Yaga there. My own grandmother (who is of Slovenian-speaking group) is originally from there and I remember hearing a similar story as a child.
We have a version of it in south Slovenija. it is heavilly cristianised and was used by the church to treathen those members of the congregation who would dare to skip church to hunt on sundays.
since my early childhood l had a painting above my bed. it was called die wilde jagd, by franz stuck. it was a digital print. there were worlds which opened to me in these childhood dreams, l can tell you that.
A version of this also exists within the Elder Scrolls games, it's something the wood elves of that series harness to turn into werebeasts of varying types to wage battle. Only appears in lore though, iirc
Yes, I think it is some ritual they do that sucks them in and many different weird demons go out. It is very poetically described in the books in-game iirc, pretty nice lol
With reference to the Greeks, how would you see the night train of Hekate which would travel on the night of the deipnon (the new moon) according to the Athenian calendar? Food and household debris were left either at the junction between the home and public street or at a public crossroads. It was considered serious bad luck to look back towards the left food or else you would be drawn into the undead train of the Goddess. I've always felt that it fell into the realms of a spirit procession, internally reinforced given that Hekate is conflated with Artemis at times.
People like you are why I love the comments section. You never know what gems maybe be found here. I have never heard this awesome story anywhere else before.
Thanks for your story,we still hunt here each winter, it's kinda necessary part of life but the fairy tales from the old country give me a little tingle around the campfire
Would you guys consider reversing the order on the playlist on your end? It'd make it a lot easier on people like I, a truck driver, who can't afford to get caught manipulating a phone when a two parter comes on
Wasn't it the moon of Gomrath? The sequel. Wierdstone was a blend of Arthurian legend and norse mythology with a smattering of welsh/British folklore more than aught else. Love the books, and elidor was also great. Alan Garner is underrated imo. Edit: Also the sequence in the wierdstone where they are crawling through the tiny tunnel out the mines genuinely gave me claustrophobia. Was never an issue with me until I read that passage, am now terrified of small, enclosed spaces.
The Sibilla from Sicily if anything might have something to do with the Cuman Sybill, the female oracle of Apollo in Campania, associated with the figure of the snake and underground gods, like the Magna Mater/Cybele
You guys are so amazing!! From the USA take my appreciation for all your hard work! I don't think people realize how much work goes into this kind of work!!!
I've never been into super long videos for instance, "hardcore history" or "those conspiracy guys" however your videos are gently easing me in but possibly what's even more important is they're keeping my attention span. And that is a magical achievement as I have ADHD and the only thing I notice from having that is my attention span is hard to stay with one thing. And that has always been the challenge for me. And I do believe its true that you grow out from the effects of ADHD as you get older but I still find it difficult to concentrate on 1 task or even trying to watch a film. I couldn't think of anything worse than starring at a little box for atleast an hour and a half. My friends would always try to not put a film on when I would be about. But these extensive episodes are perfect to keep me engaged for 2hours +. Also it's like your always reading my mind on your episode choices . I would have thought about such and such would be a good subject and then bam! there it is. Up and released from guys. It was the Spring Heeled Jack 2 parter that did it. Anyway I've waffled enough and just wanted to say thank you for all your videos and all you put into them.
One thing you’ve always got to be aware of when dealing with anything Germanic related is that for a few decades after WWII the academic community wouldn’t touch anything Germanic, and went out of their way to discredit everything Germanic in every way possible. Not the case anymore as far as I can tell, and we’re learning a lot about Germanic mythology as a result. Great video guys.
Bit of a weird take. Firstly "Germanic" doesn't just mean "Germany", and I don't think anyone uses the term in such a way. For the western allies to suppress anything Germanic would involve them sacrificing their own past because their family members went to war with them...lol. Ironically many of the mythological veins the Nazi's fetishized (and confused) have thrived since, partly as a result of the Nazi involvement as many of the confused perceptions about muh vikangz (jesus, the amount of bullshit people believe about that little subject) seem to stem with, or were exacerbated by the Nazis. Like weirdly the Nazis helped build this phenomena where modern people think Germanic mythology (often referred to as "norse") is uniquely connected or preserved in Scandinavia, which resulted from their emotional obsession with Scandinavia being an idealised "pure ethnic fatherland". Hence the way everybody nowadays says "Odin" and "Thor" instead of something like "Woden" or "Thunor", as it should be for English speakers; and Germany has it's own similar spellings. Secondly, fetishism of all things perceived as *German* has been rife after ww2. I mean what different worlds are we living in to have these different perspectives? It's surreal how much we've (in the west) exaggerated the brilliance of Germany since. Have you read deeply into ww2 history? It's full of lies and exaggeration of how brilliant Germany was. The reasons for that are no doubt complicated and I don't fully understand myself - but I think a lot of it has to do with the way West Germany was clumsily morphed into an ally by the western allies with the growing threat of the soviets. Plus the more impressive you make your old enemy seem, the more impressive your victory seems; though if you're the British that seems to have been missed and has just devolved into cynical self-loathing without redemption :^)
@@tommeakin1732it doesn't matter what the definition of "Germanic" is. The meare fact that it sounds and most ignorant people like myself see it to be synonymous to German gave this Mythology a taboo label After the war. It's a fact and is undeniable, even to an idiot like myself.
@@tommeakin1732 This isn't a weird take, it's a life inexperience take. Look into what OP posted about, and learn, instead of forming abstract opinions. Not mean to be rude, just informative. And to be clear, you should consider WHEN the mythology stolen by the Nazis became popular again. Answer = Around the same time the Myth Taboo upended, because the Nazi Mythology was the REASON for the Taboo to start. Those myths didn't regain popularity until the same time. They stayed popular because they were *already* extremely popular across Europe beforehand. Brave Teutonic Knights, The Grail, hell even the Cult/Occult practices even remained popular among polytheists and mystis. Because no one lives in a vacuum.
One of the most spectacular series of depictions of the hunt in science fiction is in Julian May's Saga of the Exiles. Her alien Tanu race are suggested as the real origin of the faerie and many other myths. It's a fantastic series that draws on many European/Celtic myths and weaves them into a time-travelling sci-fi epic trilogy set 6 million years ago.
At minute 1:10:00 you mentioned Sibilla. I believe since it was mentioned in Italy, albeit in Sicily, this might refer to the seeress of the Sibilline mountain. A figure present in roman archaic history (her books were one of the mai divination tools of Roman priest) and anthropologically a testament to the presence of the Sabine people in Rome, the people of the abduction of the women.
Just stumbled upon your podcast on Spotify and listened to the Wild Hunt (Witcher player here). I was pleasantly surprised by all the German lore as someone who was born and grew up in Southern Germany! Even though I occasionally questioned the pronunciation 😅
I remember the first time I heard the term ‘the Wild Hunt’ was during the 1990’s when I was listening to black metal from Scandinavia. One tale was of a series of villages being destroyed during winter. There is never any survivors. There are bloodied bodies everywhere, technically it’s a bloodbath. A passing person finds the remains, then follows the hoof prints from the culprits, only for the many hoof prints to suddenly vanish. It is said to be a hunting party led by Odin, who’s horses run across the sky before landing and eradicating a town then returning to the sky.
So that's where The Witcher/Elder Scrolls got it from? Research, cadence and self-deprecating humour all quality stuff, especially considering the podcast sort of format that's less scripted but more natural. Long-form content isn't easy either so nice work. Cheers, lads.
Ah, the good ol' days when news media created minor hysteria in some parents when they reported that D&D was a form of satanic worship. In some ways it was the 80s media fueled version of "Reefer Madness".
I think Herne the Hunter was mentioned in Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor which was written in the late 16th century. The bit where he is mentioned alludes to it being a superstitious old tale, or words to that effect. Ooops I spoke before I heard your mention of this… [quietly leaves the room] 🥴
I was coming to comment something like this. Herne and The Wild Hunt is also in several different Irish/Celtic folklore books I got as a teenager. It could still easily be coming from Shake-a-spear, but the other tails in there are like Ruadan, Lugh, McMannonMcMcIngmac, Balor, etc.
Or a more D like sound, depends where and when you're from. Transliteration is always a bit iffy when it comes to regional dialects and pronunciation, potato potato and the like.
Now I know why back in the days my grandmother never put away the food we feasted on new year’s we just leave all the food on table until next day and then tidy up
The original stemming from Boeotian amphora, Potnia Therōn, detail Thebes, 680 -670 BCE National Archaeological Museum, NM 220, AT 119 || The Lady of the Wild Things, or Mistress/Master of Animals. "However, this motif predates the classical Greeks byt housands of years and can be found across many cultures in the Near East and the Aegean. Similar imagery has also been found on Canaanite artifacts from ca.1400 BCE, (Day 1992), on Aegean seals as early as the 21st century BCE (Crowley 2010), on terracottas from the Indus Valley of the mid-third millennium BCE, and even on some of the very earliest seals from the proto-literate Near East, dating to about 5000 BCE." --JEREMY DUBHRÓS | B.A. ANTRHOPOLOGY CULTURAL TRANSLATION AND THE ICONOGRAPHY OF THE MASTER AND MISTRESS OF THE ANIMALS aka The Lady of the Wild Things / The Wild Hunt
I find the distinction between folklore and mythology strange, especially in medieval europe, where christianization destroyed many pagan religious traditions, causing them to fracture into diverging localized folkloric tradition.
These stories remind me of the Dutch/Belgian folktale of the Buckriders. These were gangs that operated mainly in the south of the Netherlands and the north of Belgium from the 1740s until the 1790s. According to court documents, the members of these gangs rode flying goats at night, and met with Satan in the woods once a year. They were said to have a mafia-like initiation ritual where new members burned a candle in the woods, denounced God and swore fealty to Satan and promised never to divulge their gang's secrets even under threat of torture or death. While many of these details stem from confessions extracted through threats and torture, the gangs quickly embraced the reputation in order to strike fear into their victims. And while the gangs themselves were rounded up and put to death with extreme prejudice (we're talking about more than a thousand trials and several hundred executions, including of prominent members of the community), their myth persisted, and in some areas continues to persist, with Bokkenrijders (Buckriders) being a common name for social organizations today.
Maybe some kind of memory from the start of the bronze age, where bronze armed killers bands with horse, hunted and killed any male from other cultures. See the DNA of Europe archeologic works.
I came back to check this one out again... just wanted to say, I caught your very first episode you ever made and I and thought "man these guys will get a huge audience if they stick to their guns." Glad you're getting there ;) RUclips's algorithm was kind to me for showing your first video in the suggested category!
1:09:00 The Wild Hunt is quite littarly called Odins Hunt in Sweden and a bit critic regarding Jacob Grim. Jacob just thought of every Germanic account, but you pull from every source like ancient greece, so you can't call him wrong in that, because you look at a broader picture while he looked into purely germanic folklore and he made the connection there and only there.
It's a bit strange that you don't talk about or mention Åsgårdsreia/Oskoreia. You use the norwegian painting of it as main illustration in the video. Åsgårdsreia is a myth from norse mythology about a host of ghouls, dead people (often criminals), trolls, and tusser (a kind of trolls/fairies). It was sometimes led by Sigurd Fåvnesbane, the witch (kind of) Guro Rysserova, or the vette Lussi (demons are probably the closest equivalent to vetter). The one led by Lussi is refered to as Lussireia though. Åsgårdsreia is closely connected to the time surrounding christmas. I've never heard of Odin being connected to it, and he's not mentioned in the article I looked up. Edit: Fixed a typo.
There’s some connection among all these myths. Comments alone where people point out their own people’s versions and how similar they are. The easiest explanation is everyone is just experiencing and describing the same phenomenon. 🤷♀️
I found an account from 1884 from upper Austria, that mentions that the grandfather of one interviewee had witnessed something he thought to be the wild hunt 120 years prior. I have been all over Austria and out of interest for mythology have talked with many people, the wild hunt can be found in large parts of the country, all sounding very similar. I doubt that it can all traced back to a simplification and unofication of various motifs being spread around the place. With how widespread it is, especially in the alpine regions, whoch were far more untouched by Christianity than the low lands, I don't doubt that these myths have a somewhat ancient origin.
I first encountered the actual term "wild hunt" watching the fantasy tv series Teen Wolf but before that I knew of faerie stories warning mortals not to be out on certain nights for the Queen of Faeries & her procession were out riding & would grab any mortal soul they came upon. This procession was believed to take souls to Hell.This myth is referenced in the Scottish (?) poem of Tam Lin & is a wonderful Fairport Convention song :) I'm super curious to hear what your research dug up...
I'd like to recommend Raymond E. Feist's "Faerie Tale" - a novel with a pretty interesting view of the wild hunt and its links with Christianism and Irish folklore
Ok new listener and recent subscriber. I wasn't sure if I would have stayed and listened or not UNTIL YOU MENTIONED JIM BUTCHER AND THE DRESDEN FILES. FREAKING AMAZING WRITER. THEN TO MY SHOCK YOU MENTION WARHAMMER IM INTO THE 40K. Never read any of the other Warhammer series yet. So u guys definitely got my attention I'm hoping I really love your show. Thanks
17:33 Etymology of the surname LECOUTEUX (IPA: [ lə kutø ]): Origin : It is a rare surname, representing the old form of "lecousteur", variation of the Old French "costor" which means "guardian", and designates the cleric in charge of guarding the church treasure, the sacristan.
Just a Fun Fact: there is also a Hern in Skyrim. He's half of a pair of vampires that inhabit a mill. There's a v minor side quest you can do for them but they're not hostile toward the Dragonborn. Hern ends up being one of the contracts you get from the Dark Brotherhood as well.
2:13:42 so it might not be that Monrad but one priest (and bishop) called Monrad is Ditlev Gothard Monrad who was one of the first prime ministers in Denmark and wrote the first constitution, which the current one is still based on. If it's that one then he's quite a bit more than a priest, being one of the most important people in the history of Danish democracy.
My first time hearing of anything close to "The Wild Hunt" was in Skyrim, where it was a quest to follow and slay increasingly dangerous creatures, leading to the killing of a rogue werewolf and gaining its hide as armor as a reward.
For the HELLBOY/ Mik Mignola fanboys out there. Hellboy: The Wild Hunt is the ninth collected edition in Mike Mignola's Hellboy comic book series, the second of three connected story arcs written by Mignola and illustrated by Duncan Fegredo. I highly recommend reading this comic book interpretation of the wild hunt :)
At about 1:50:00 when you mention what I am assuming is skeins (since I can't see the spelling)--that is actually skeins and not "skins" as you posit. The hanks of yarn that result from spinning are called skeins. :)
What do you think of the wild hunt’s links to the stories of Odin and his Valkyries flying over the battlefield and choosing the slain AND the fact that it may also link to the stories about Santa Claus and his flying sleigh?
What source in anything ever described Oðinn as 'flying over' a battlefield? I'm pretty convinced of ties with his origin to the war band cultures/Indo European 'koryos' tradition that the wild Hunt motif seems to have a lot to do with, but Oðinn rides on a horse, there is no attestation in writing or archaeology that suggests he flies above the hunt.
“Defeat in battle always begins with the eyes” Idk if it was Tacitus or another author who wrote that the gaze of the Germanic men could not be met for its ferocity.
You can also find this episode on Spotify, iTunes and Stitcher! You can find it at the links below:
Spotify - open.spotify.com/episode/25stJHsQJ0hjKjRCVDACKj
iTunes - podcasts.apple.com/lt/podcast/the-wild-hunt/id1514656609?i=1000531743776
Stitcher - www.stitcher.com/show/mythillogical-podcast/episode/the-wild-hunt-86043808
,
Harii hindi Hari means saviour and God Vishnu destroyer eivl.
Very interesting piece. About 30 minutes in and you mention that there is no connection between the Wild Hunt and Greece/Rome... If I might interject a thought, Dionysus is worth a look. He is the Father of Lunacy, and did in fact have a "Wild Hunt" of sorts. He is also associated with Charon, the Ferryman of the River Styx.
edit) figured I would add a little bit of context so as not to seem rude: "The cult of Dionysus is also a "cult of the souls"; his maenads feed the dead through blood-offerings, and he acts as a divine communicant between the living and the dead.[14] He is sometimes categorised as a dying-and-rising god."
Oh! Doesn't he look like John Kerry! The American politician!!
1:00:01. The harvest fest tical/tival. Plasma possession.
Everything around is are clues. We are in the labyrinth but very few even realize this prior to death theres days ....
Such is the result of the Quorum of 1700 and the plans there of..
Wind's howling
hmm
Pam paraaam.
Looks like rain
Round of Gwent?
place of power, gotta be
"we thought this would be easy but actually it might be the longest one we've done" is quickly becoming the catchphrase of this podcast
Which is a good thing. 😁
thats just getting annoying at this point, we know what to expect
Truck KB Iyvred USB d D mini kid can drug g shy no
@@omnesilere calm down
So what?
A quick correction, its been pointed out that the account we gave of Herodias does not correlate well with the account given in the gospels, it seems we mixed up a legend from a 12th century document called the Ysengrimus given by Claude Lecouteux with the actual Christian account. This is our bad for not using a primary source on this occasion and we will issue a full correction and explanation at the beginning of the next episode.
yes, it was actually Salome, Herodias' daughter who did an erotic dance for King Herod, her stepfather after he promised her anything. She did the dance, and then asked for the head of John The Baptist on a silver platter, and Herod reluctantly ordered it to be done.
Marriages song Salome deals with the it, it's also got a lot of famous paintings, definitely one of the more brutal and human aspects of the Gospels. Also Oscar Wilde wrote a one-act play extrapolating on the story and the dance Salome did.
Beyond impressed with your concern and care for the information you present on this channel! Humility and honest analysis over hubris, thank you!
Here in the Austrian Alps the Wild Hunt (germ. Wilde Jagd, dialect Wüde Gjoad) still is a very important part of life depending on the region. The leader of it is Frau Perchta and again depending on the regions and valleys also Wotan (Odin). The hunt itself takes place during the "rough nights" (Rauhnächte). Where I am from those begin with the day of St. Thomas which is the "Thomasnacht" (21st of December) marking the opening of the gates to the "otherworld", the realm of the demons and damned. The first creature stepping into our world then is the demon creature "Thomasbock", a billy goat like demon feeding on fear that runs through all the valleys and even through houses. We don't hang the washing up, ecspecially not the white one, since it is said that the demon would run into it and your house and kin would have to deal with its evil spirit for the next year. Then, again in most communities, on the 25th of December, right after Christmas, Perchta and her army of demons (mostly lesser gods) and spirits of dead children (unbaptized, drowned or just evil) come forth and will ride through the skies, on the rivers and streams and it is said over the house roofs for twelve days. On the last few of those days and nights (Jan. 4th-6th) we dress up like demons and try to get rid of Perchta and her spirits by to pretending to be part of theirs. Since Perchta is a mixture from Frigg and different regional mostly (pre-)Celtic godesses, in Carinthia and Styria probably also Slavic ones, the demon figures varry between most villages. However Perchta herself is described the same way in all of Bavarian folklore. She is the godess of two faces and sides, a beautiful one and an evil witchlike one. She is the godess of all fertility, punishment, witches, certain birds and dark ponds. Good people will see her as a beautiful young lady dressed in white but evil people, liars and sinners she will show her ugly and evil side. Together with Wotan she also is a godess of the dead, mostly children. When dressing up we try to cover most of the creatures and demons people in the respective region say are part of the Wild Hunt. We for example have Frau Perchta, horned demons, witches, death (Boandlkrama - Bone Grocer), different animal demons (chicken, bull, ram, wild hog...) and several good ones. The good ones mainly are meant to bring fertility, dance and wear masks depending on the region.
Sorry for the long comment but maybe somebody is interested. Greetings from Western Austria!
much appreciated, thak u
@@aquariusrisingafrica1772 You are welcome!
This is FASCINATING :0
@@Mysterious0bject Thanks mate
This was really interesting thank you! I have some really funny childhood memories of this event and this gave me quite some context. Thanks a lot, will look up more!
The story of the woman on ember Friday (around 1hr 52mins) - the skeins she was boiling would have been skeins of wool and not skins as you suggested? After spinning wool, the yarn is twisted into skeins that are then scalded in hot water to "fix" the wool and prevet it from shrinking after being turned into fabric. Otherwise, all very very interesting.......
An old cowpoke went riding out one dark and windy day, upon a ridge he rested as he went along his way. When all at once a mighty herd of red-eyed cows he saw, A'plowin' through the ragged skies and up the cloudy draws....
Exactly what I thought of!
@@bighil89origin?
The Outlaws version is best, circa 1980.
I live just north of the Limes in Germany. Here there is also a connection to the old roman border (Teufelsmauer/Devil wall) and the "Wilde Jagd" (Wild Hunt).
It can only travel on it, and in any houses build on it they have to open a window and the oven door in the "Rauhnächte"(12 days between Christmas and Epiphany), so that the wild hunt can travel through without damaging everything
@okay yes haha
I like you sir, have only heard about them from the Witcher, so that’s why I am here.
I like you too, sir.
@@jrodriguez1374 thanks XD
Was looking for this exact comment lol
Fancy a game of gwent?
Hmm..Wilds howling
An enlightening exercise in the importance of reading what a source actually says rather than seeking ways to make it say what you want it to.
Oral tradition is not science
@@Thomas-xd4cxThat's nice, this video isnt concerned with oral tradition though. Its concerned with the biased re-imagining of oral traditions, and laying out why it doesnt tie the traditions together in any meaningful way
Ie. They arent treating it as a science, they're looking through it from a human-history (anthropology) lens, which ironically originates from the very forms of christian mysticism they discuss in the video.
@@DanielWilczek-nu7ff the entire subject is oral tradition, what are you even on about.
The video is about the writings of a pre-medieval pseudo-anthropologist, and why his writing on The Wild Hunt in particular is false. The subject CONTAINS oral tradition, but the core focus is not oral tradition.
By your logic, a peanut butter sandwich is a bread sandwich because it contains bread.
Reading comprehension friend, find it.
I"ve heard some Asian myths that have processions of spirits. Some Hong Kong skyscrapers are made with holes in them called Dragon Gates to allow such processions.
Makes me wonder if they are really myths then?
@@aussieas6655 they most likely aren't myths but because of the wind, maybe some tall buildings got knocked down and it was attributed to spirits
wow! That's so dumb.
Cool
1:53:00 : Since this story takes place in Feistritz, which is an Austrian small town (actually there also a few villages with the same name in the region) in the South of Carinthia within the mixed Slovenian-speaking (hence Slavic) and German-speaking area in Austria, it is no surprise that you will find a blending of the Germanic folk lore of the wild hunt with the Slavic folk lore of Baba Yaga there. My own grandmother (who is of Slovenian-speaking group) is originally from there and I remember hearing a similar story as a child.
We have a version of it in south Slovenija. it is heavilly cristianised and was used by the church to treathen those members of the congregation who would dare to skip church to hunt on sundays.
since my early childhood l had a painting above my bed. it was called die wilde jagd, by franz stuck. it was a digital print.
there were worlds which opened to me in these childhood dreams, l can tell you that.
I was already scared by just my curtains at times… can’t imagine having that above your bed as a kid.
A version of this also exists within the Elder Scrolls games, it's something the wood elves of that series harness to turn into werebeasts of varying types to wage battle. Only appears in lore though, iirc
Also hercine or however you spell it
1:41:20
@@Jack-bp3ns yes, his plane of Oblivion is The Hunting Grounds
Yes, I think it is some ritual they do that sucks them in and many different weird demons go out. It is very poetically described in the books in-game iirc, pretty nice lol
With reference to the Greeks, how would you see the night train of Hekate which would travel on the night of the deipnon (the new moon) according to the Athenian calendar? Food and household debris were left either at the junction between the home and public street or at a public crossroads. It was considered serious bad luck to look back towards the left food or else you would be drawn into the undead train of the Goddess.
I've always felt that it fell into the realms of a spirit procession, internally reinforced given that Hekate is conflated with Artemis at times.
People like you are why I love the comments section. You never know what gems maybe be found here. I have never heard this awesome story anywhere else before.
Got my coffee and my smoke. Time to settle in.
Sounds perfect!
righteous
Tea and a dip for this guy!!!
A man after my own heart.
A man of culture.
Susan Cooper's the Dark is rising was my first exposure to the Wild Hunt, and it's leader Herne the Hunter.
Mine too! I now always associate it with the migration of geese! I absolutely loved those books.
Yes!
Same here. I read them when I was 12. I was very surprised Cooper's books weren't mentioned in the introduction of this video.
Me too!!
Mine too. Superb books
Thanks for your story,we still hunt here each winter, it's kinda necessary part of life but the fairy tales from the old country give me a little tingle around the campfire
Fantastic analysis, drew my attention to some accounts I haven't come across, a very significant piece of folklore and little understood by many.
Would you guys consider reversing the order on the playlist on your end? It'd make it a lot easier on people like I, a truck driver, who can't afford to get caught manipulating a phone when a two parter comes on
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen is based on the wild hunt. It's a good book with some great mythology in it. I recommend it.
Wasn't it the moon of Gomrath? The sequel. Wierdstone was a blend of Arthurian legend and norse mythology with a smattering of welsh/British folklore more than aught else. Love the books, and elidor was also great. Alan Garner is underrated imo.
Edit: Also the sequence in the wierdstone where they are crawling through the tiny tunnel out the mines genuinely gave me claustrophobia. Was never an issue with me until I read that passage, am now terrified of small, enclosed spaces.
@@robertbryce3225 yes you're correct. My mistake it was the moon of gomrath. We ride. We ride.
This is such a great series, there is nobody else out there quite like you two. Very interesting stuff guys, thanks.
The Sibilla from Sicily if anything might have something to do with the Cuman Sybill, the female oracle of Apollo in Campania, associated with the figure of the snake and underground gods, like the Magna Mater/Cybele
You guys are so amazing!! From the USA take my appreciation for all your hard work! I don't think people realize how much work goes into this kind of work!!!
YESSSSS, I've been wanting to learn about this topic!! Love your work man
I've never been into super long videos for instance, "hardcore history" or "those conspiracy guys" however your videos are gently easing me in but possibly what's even more important is they're keeping my attention span. And that is a magical achievement as I have ADHD and the only thing I notice from having that is my attention span is hard to stay with one thing. And that has always been the challenge for me. And I do believe its true that you grow out from the effects of ADHD as you get older but I still find it difficult to concentrate on 1 task or even trying to watch a film. I couldn't think of anything worse than starring at a little box for atleast an hour and a half. My friends would always try to not put a film on when I would be about. But these extensive episodes are perfect to keep me engaged for 2hours +. Also it's like your always reading my mind on your episode choices . I would have thought about such and such would be a good subject and then bam! there it is. Up and released from guys. It was the Spring Heeled Jack 2 parter that did it. Anyway I've waffled enough and just wanted to say thank you for all your videos and all you put into them.
One thing you’ve always got to be aware of when dealing with anything Germanic related is that for a few decades after WWII the academic community wouldn’t touch anything Germanic, and went out of their way to discredit everything Germanic in every way possible.
Not the case anymore as far as I can tell, and we’re learning a lot about Germanic mythology as a result.
Great video guys.
Bit of a weird take. Firstly "Germanic" doesn't just mean "Germany", and I don't think anyone uses the term in such a way. For the western allies to suppress anything Germanic would involve them sacrificing their own past because their family members went to war with them...lol. Ironically many of the mythological veins the Nazi's fetishized (and confused) have thrived since, partly as a result of the Nazi involvement as many of the confused perceptions about muh vikangz (jesus, the amount of bullshit people believe about that little subject) seem to stem with, or were exacerbated by the Nazis. Like weirdly the Nazis helped build this phenomena where modern people think Germanic mythology (often referred to as "norse") is uniquely connected or preserved in Scandinavia, which resulted from their emotional obsession with Scandinavia being an idealised "pure ethnic fatherland". Hence the way everybody nowadays says "Odin" and "Thor" instead of something like "Woden" or "Thunor", as it should be for English speakers; and Germany has it's own similar spellings. Secondly, fetishism of all things perceived as *German* has been rife after ww2. I mean what different worlds are we living in to have these different perspectives? It's surreal how much we've (in the west) exaggerated the brilliance of Germany since. Have you read deeply into ww2 history? It's full of lies and exaggeration of how brilliant Germany was. The reasons for that are no doubt complicated and I don't fully understand myself - but I think a lot of it has to do with the way West Germany was clumsily morphed into an ally by the western allies with the growing threat of the soviets. Plus the more impressive you make your old enemy seem, the more impressive your victory seems; though if you're the British that seems to have been missed and has just devolved into cynical self-loathing without redemption :^)
@@tommeakin1732it doesn't matter what the definition of "Germanic" is. The meare fact that it sounds and most ignorant people like myself see it to be synonymous to German gave this Mythology a taboo label After the war. It's a fact and is undeniable, even to an idiot like myself.
@@tommeakin1732 This isn't a weird take, it's a life inexperience take. Look into what OP posted about, and learn, instead of forming abstract opinions. Not mean to be rude, just informative.
And to be clear, you should consider WHEN the mythology stolen by the Nazis became popular again. Answer = Around the same time the Myth Taboo upended, because the Nazi Mythology was the REASON for the Taboo to start. Those myths didn't regain popularity until the same time. They stayed popular because they were *already* extremely popular across Europe beforehand. Brave Teutonic Knights, The Grail, hell even the Cult/Occult practices even remained popular among polytheists and mystis. Because no one lives in a vacuum.
I knew about the Wild Hunt from Susan Cooper’s novel series, The Dark Is Rising
It's interesting how completely contrary the legend you recount of Herodias is to the account in the Gospel of Mark.
This was superb. Thank you for the colossal amount of work you clearly put in.
One of the most spectacular series of depictions of the hunt in science fiction is in Julian May's Saga of the Exiles. Her alien Tanu race are suggested as the real origin of the faerie and many other myths. It's a fantastic series that draws on many European/Celtic myths and weaves them into a time-travelling sci-fi epic trilogy set 6 million years ago.
Nice, one of my favourite mythological subjects. A pity I have no time to watch it right now.
At minute 1:10:00 you mentioned Sibilla. I believe since it was mentioned in Italy, albeit in Sicily, this might refer to the seeress of the Sibilline mountain. A figure present in roman archaic history (her books were one of the mai divination tools of Roman priest) and anthropologically a testament to the presence of the Sabine people in Rome, the people of the abduction of the women.
Just stumbled upon your podcast on Spotify and listened to the Wild Hunt (Witcher player here). I was pleasantly surprised by all the German lore as someone who was born and grew up in Southern Germany! Even though I occasionally questioned the pronunciation 😅
Good old Chuck and Crofty. Favourite British duo since Gilbert and Sullivan. Fantastic video.
I remember the first time I heard the term ‘the Wild Hunt’ was during the 1990’s when I was listening to black metal from Scandinavia.
One tale was of a series of villages being destroyed during winter. There is never any survivors. There are bloodied bodies everywhere, technically it’s a bloodbath. A passing person finds the remains, then follows the hoof prints from the culprits, only for the many hoof prints to suddenly vanish.
It is said to be a hunting party led by Odin, who’s horses run across the sky before landing and eradicating a town then returning to the sky.
Always excited to see your podcasts. Love em long. Don't mind multi hour, Mukti episode conversations about topics.
You may want to hear about something like the Wild Hunt but in Hawaii, USA:
The Nightmarchers
So that's where The Witcher/Elder Scrolls got it from? Research, cadence and self-deprecating humour all quality stuff, especially considering the podcast sort of format that's less scripted but more natural. Long-form content isn't easy either so nice work. Cheers, lads.
GenX here. You should look into Deities and Demigods. That was my first exposure to the Wild Hunt. Before video games, there was AD&D
Ah, the good ol' days when news media created minor hysteria in some parents when they reported that D&D was a form of satanic worship. In some ways it was the 80s media fueled version of "Reefer Madness".
1:12:something; NOoo Sibylla like the hotdogplace
Love to see a shoutout for The Dresden Files! Such a fantastic series!
I first heard the term ‘the wild hunt’ in the amazing bbc tv production of Quatermas and the Pit!
The Hawaiian’s Night Marchers fits this archetype perfectly
I started a subscription to you guys after watching your vampire podcast. This one is so good and informative as well! Love the Tolkien mention! ❤🌙🕯
Did Crofty ever make that music account? Lol. These long form history casts are getting me through some long form work days! Can’t thank you enough
I think Herne the Hunter was mentioned in Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor which was written in the late 16th century. The bit where he is mentioned alludes to it being a superstitious old tale, or words to that effect. Ooops I spoke before I heard your mention of this… [quietly leaves the room] 🥴
I was coming to comment something like this. Herne and The Wild Hunt is also in several different Irish/Celtic folklore books I got as a teenager. It could still easily be coming from Shake-a-spear, but the other tails in there are like Ruadan, Lugh, McMannonMcMcIngmac, Balor, etc.
Sprinklings of Tolkien mentions are always welcome 🤓 also, thanks for the great content 👍
pronounce "Jagd" like yacht but with a "k" sound after the vowel and a hard "t" at the end.
Or a more D like sound, depends where and when you're from. Transliteration is always a bit iffy when it comes to regional dialects and pronunciation, potato potato and the like.
In the Netherlands it's pronounced as if scraping your throat
like in "jacked" except slower
Don't tell me what to do
we don't use the hard t here bro
Now I know why back in the days my grandmother never put away the food we feasted on new year’s we just leave all the food on table until next day and then tidy up
The original stemming from Boeotian amphora, Potnia Therōn, detail Thebes, 680 -670 BCE National Archaeological Museum, NM 220, AT 119 || The Lady of the Wild Things, or Mistress/Master of Animals. "However, this motif predates the classical Greeks byt housands of years and can be found across many cultures in the Near East and the Aegean. Similar imagery has also been found on Canaanite artifacts from ca.1400 BCE, (Day 1992), on Aegean seals as early as the 21st century BCE (Crowley 2010), on terracottas from the Indus Valley of the mid-third millennium BCE, and even on some of the very earliest seals from the proto-literate Near East, dating to about 5000 BCE." --JEREMY DUBHRÓS | B.A. ANTRHOPOLOGY CULTURAL TRANSLATION AND THE ICONOGRAPHY OF THE MASTER AND MISTRESS OF THE ANIMALS aka The Lady of the Wild Things / The Wild Hunt
I find the distinction between folklore and mythology strange, especially in medieval europe, where christianization destroyed many pagan religious traditions, causing them to fracture into diverging localized folkloric tradition.
skeins aren't skins, skeins are balls of yarn.
I love these programmes.Well done lads.
yall are smart. I love listening to this content at work on lazy Saturdays
These stories remind me of the Dutch/Belgian folktale of the Buckriders. These were gangs that operated mainly in the south of the Netherlands and the north of Belgium from the 1740s until the 1790s. According to court documents, the members of these gangs rode flying goats at night, and met with Satan in the woods once a year. They were said to have a mafia-like initiation ritual where new members burned a candle in the woods, denounced God and swore fealty to Satan and promised never to divulge their gang's secrets even under threat of torture or death.
While many of these details stem from confessions extracted through threats and torture, the gangs quickly embraced the reputation in order to strike fear into their victims. And while the gangs themselves were rounded up and put to death with extreme prejudice (we're talking about more than a thousand trials and several hundred executions, including of prominent members of the community), their myth persisted, and in some areas continues to persist, with Bokkenrijders (Buckriders) being a common name for social organizations today.
I had to chuckle when you mentioned the "ghostly army". Asterix would put them in their place.
Maybe some kind of memory from the start of the bronze age, where bronze armed killers bands with horse, hunted and killed any male from other cultures.
See the DNA of Europe archeologic works.
Mythillogical Drinking Game: Take a drink every time a word is mispronounced.
No thank you, i choose to live
Jagermeister?
Irish whiskey for me...
@@kmaher1424 Oh hell no. I had ONE bad experience with Jager and a pickle. Never again.
@@taylorslade961 How very Freudian... ;P
@@prof_brendo It was nothing like that. Just know that it's not a good idea to eat a pickle after a bunch of Jager shots.
Why does sidekick dude sound like south parks Canadian tv reporter whenever the Canadian princess gets kidnapped by tooth decay
Of course at the royal canadian wedding
Of course as is the tradition
Feed me the knowledge historian daddy
😂😂 I loath the interwebs
Is there someplace I can find the names of the gorgeous paintings used in the background?
I came back to check this one out again... just wanted to say, I caught your very first episode you ever made and I and thought "man these guys will get a huge audience if they stick to their guns." Glad you're getting there ;)
RUclips's algorithm was kind to me for showing your first video in the suggested category!
The wild hunt from "Darby O'Gill and the little people " Disney Flick that Sean Connery made his American Movie debut !
1:09:00 The Wild Hunt is quite littarly called Odins Hunt in Sweden and a bit critic regarding Jacob Grim. Jacob just thought of every Germanic account, but you pull from every source like ancient greece, so you can't call him wrong in that, because you look at a broader picture while he looked into purely germanic folklore and he made the connection there and only there.
I don’t wish to insult. But I love falling asleep listening to this
24:36 - I think your eyes rolled so hard, we were able to hear it happen.
Loved this, thanks guys
Great info. Thank you 😊
It's a bit strange that you don't talk about or mention Åsgårdsreia/Oskoreia. You use the norwegian painting of it as main illustration in the video. Åsgårdsreia is a myth from norse mythology about a host of ghouls, dead people (often criminals), trolls, and tusser (a kind of trolls/fairies). It was sometimes led by Sigurd Fåvnesbane, the witch (kind of) Guro Rysserova, or the vette Lussi (demons are probably the closest equivalent to vetter). The one led by Lussi is refered to as Lussireia though. Åsgårdsreia is closely connected to the time surrounding christmas.
I've never heard of Odin being connected to it, and he's not mentioned in the article I looked up.
Edit: Fixed a typo.
There’s some connection among all these myths. Comments alone where people point out their own people’s versions and how similar they are. The easiest explanation is everyone is just experiencing and describing the same phenomenon. 🤷♀️
I found an account from 1884 from upper Austria, that mentions that the grandfather of one interviewee had witnessed something he thought to be the wild hunt 120 years prior. I have been all over Austria and out of interest for mythology have talked with many people, the wild hunt can be found in large parts of the country, all sounding very similar. I doubt that it can all traced back to a simplification and unofication of various motifs being spread around the place. With how widespread it is, especially in the alpine regions, whoch were far more untouched by Christianity than the low lands, I don't doubt that these myths have a somewhat ancient origin.
Can we just take a moment to appreciate the fact that Crofty is a Warhammer fan
I first encountered the actual term "wild hunt" watching the fantasy tv series Teen Wolf but before that I knew of faerie stories warning mortals not to be out on certain nights for the Queen of Faeries & her procession were out riding & would grab any mortal soul they came upon. This procession was believed to take souls to Hell.This myth is referenced in the Scottish (?) poem of Tam Lin & is a wonderful Fairport Convention song :) I'm super curious to hear what your research dug up...
love the vids
I'd like to recommend Raymond E. Feist's "Faerie Tale" - a novel with a pretty interesting view of the wild hunt and its links with Christianism and Irish folklore
One of my favorite books of all time!!!!
That's one of the only horror stories I've read that actually scared me.
Is it heavy on being pro-christian? Sounds interesting but I'm a bit traumatized by my upbringing...
I saw it on a Friday night back in the late 1980's .
Thank you! Top shelf stuff as always. Cheers :)
I had a crazy dream last week and relayed it to a friend. He said I had dreamed of the wild hunt-which led me here! Crazy!
The Witcher wild hunt is a great game
Wow awesome video 👍🏽.
Thanks for making this
Ok new listener and recent subscriber. I wasn't sure if I would have stayed and listened or not UNTIL YOU MENTIONED JIM BUTCHER AND THE DRESDEN FILES. FREAKING AMAZING WRITER. THEN TO MY SHOCK YOU MENTION WARHAMMER IM INTO THE 40K. Never read any of the other Warhammer series yet. So u guys definitely got my attention I'm hoping I really love your show. Thanks
17:33 Etymology of the surname LECOUTEUX (IPA: [ lə kutø ]):
Origin : It is a rare surname, representing the old form of "lecousteur", variation of the Old French "costor" which means "guardian", and designates the cleric in charge of guarding the church treasure, the sacristan.
Just a Fun Fact: there is also a Hern in Skyrim. He's half of a pair of vampires that inhabit a mill. There's a v minor side quest you can do for them but they're not hostile toward the Dragonborn. Hern ends up being one of the contracts you get from the Dark Brotherhood as well.
2:13:42 so it might not be that Monrad but one priest (and bishop) called Monrad is Ditlev Gothard Monrad who was one of the first prime ministers in Denmark and wrote the first constitution, which the current one is still based on. If it's that one then he's quite a bit more than a priest, being one of the most important people in the history of Danish democracy.
My first time hearing of anything close to "The Wild Hunt" was in Skyrim, where it was a quest to follow and slay increasingly dangerous creatures, leading to the killing of a rogue werewolf and gaining its hide as armor as a reward.
Absolutely brilliant podcast.
This is the best monotone podcast to date.
Deserves 100x the views
Big foot is real
My first awareness of the Wild Hunt was from 1st edition AD&D’s Deities and Demigods….if I remember correctly, it was under the Finnish Mythos
Ooh Robin Hood is next
For the HELLBOY/ Mik Mignola fanboys out there. Hellboy: The Wild Hunt is the ninth collected edition in Mike Mignola's Hellboy comic book series, the second of three connected story arcs written by Mignola and illustrated by Duncan Fegredo. I highly recommend reading this comic book interpretation of the wild hunt :)
Thats the best gift! thank you!
I’m reminded of the Fairy Queen’s procession from Tam Lin
Well done
At about 1:50:00 when you mention what I am assuming is skeins (since I can't see the spelling)--that is actually skeins and not "skins" as you posit. The hanks of yarn that result from spinning are called skeins. :)
What do you think of the wild hunt’s links to the stories of Odin and his Valkyries flying over the battlefield and choosing the slain AND the fact that it may also link to the stories about Santa Claus and his flying sleigh?
Great video
What source in anything ever described Oðinn as 'flying over' a battlefield? I'm pretty convinced of ties with his origin to the war band cultures/Indo European 'koryos' tradition that the wild Hunt motif seems to have a lot to do with, but Oðinn rides on a horse, there is no attestation in writing or archaeology that suggests he flies above the hunt.
Thanks y’all. This is really informative on a fascinating subject. God bless Jacob Grimm.
“Defeat in battle always begins with the eyes”
Idk if it was Tacitus or another author who wrote that the gaze of the Germanic men could not be met for its ferocity.