"I am as old
As the Behmer wold,
And have in my life
Such a brewing not seen."

Old Saying (Thorpe's tr.)

The object of this phantom hunt varied greatly, and was either a
visonary boar or wild horse, white-breasted maidens who were caught
and borne away bound only once in seven years, or the wood nymphs,
called Moss Maidens, who were thought to represent the autumn leaves
torn from the trees and whirled away by the wintry gale.

In the middle ages, when the belief in the old heathen deities
was partly forgotten, the leader of the Wild Hunt was no longer
Odin, but Charlemagne, Frederick Barbarossa, King Arthur, or some
Sabbath-breaker, like the Squire of Rodenstein or Hans von Hackelberg,
who, in punishment for his sins, was condemned to hunt for ever
through the realms of air.

As the winds blew fiercest in autumn and winter, Odin was supposed to
prefer hunting during that season, especially during the time between
Christmas and Twelfth-night, and the peasants were always careful to
leave the last sheaf or measure of grain out in the fields to serve
as food for his horse.

This hunt was of course known by various names in the different
countries of Northern Europe; but as the tales told about it are
all alike, they evidently originated in the same old heathen belief,
and to this day ignorant people of the North fancy that the baying
of a hound on a stormy night is an infallible presage of death.

"Still, still shall last the dreadful chase,
Till time itself shall have an end;
By day, they scour earth's cavern'd space,
At midnight's witching hour, ascend.

"This is the horn, and hound, and horse
That oft the lated peasant hears;
Appall'd, he signs the frequent cross,
When the wild din invades his ears.

"The wakeful priest oft drops a tear
For human pride, for human woe,
When, at his midnight mass, he hears
The infernal cry of 'Holla, ho!'"

Sir Walter Scott.

The Wild Hunt, or Raging Host of Germany, was called Herlathing
in England, from the mythical king Herla, its supposed leader; in
Northern France it bore the name of Mesnee d'Hellequin, from Hel,
goddess of death; and in the middle ages it was known as Cain's Hunt
or Herod's Hunt, these latter names being given because the leaders
were supposed to be unable to find rest on account of the iniquitous
murders of Abel, of John the Baptist, and o