Post by Souriquois on Nov 26, 2017 15:31:05 GMT -4
This is a part of folklore I find really interesting. It apparently dates back to ancient Northern Europe and folklore or it exists in many parts of Europe today, and in North America among European descendants.
It's referenced a lot in heavy metal in Europe, like this Faroese band:
In North America, it took on different variances.
In Canada, there was a melding indigenous folklore of the Flying Canoe with the European Wild Hunt, like the French-Canadian myth La chasse-galerie
Since in Europe, the Wild Hunt happened in late December, Yule in pagan times, Christmas in Christian times, sometimes there was Christian meaning to it as well. French-Canadians also believed that Jesus as leading it, and that the Northern Lights was a sign of it. This is reflected in the lyrics of this traditional French-Canadian Christmas song, where children walk over a mountain on Christmas Eve and see the Northern Lights.
In the United States, it took on cowboy/Western/outlaw imagery as "Ghost Riders on the Storm". Now, cowboys come from Mexico, originally, so I am wondering if Mexico has similar myths.
In modern times, too, the American legend has also taken on the image of the outlaw biker
And melded with African-American outlaw myths
The Wild Hunt is a European folk myth involving a ghostly or supernatural group of huntsmen passing in wild pursuit. The hunters may be either elves or fairies or the dead,[1] and the leader of the hunt is often a named figure associated with Woden[2] (or other reflections of the same god, such as Alemannic Wuodan in Wuotis Heer ("Wuodan's Army") of Central Switzerland, Swabia etc.), but may variously be a historical or legendary figure like Theodoric the Great, the Danish king Valdemar Atterdag, the Welsh psychopomp Gwyn ap Nudd, biblical figures such as Herod, Cain, Gabriel or the Devil, or an unidentified lost soul or spirit either male or female.
Seeing the Wild Hunt was thought to presage some catastrophe such as war or plague, or at best the death of the one who witnessed it.[3] People encountering the Hunt might also be abducted to the underworld or the fairy kingdom.[4] In some instances, it was also believed that people's spirits could be pulled away during their sleep to join the cavalcade.[5]
The concept was developed based on comparative mythology by Jacob Grimm in Deutsche Mythologie (1835) as a folkloristic survival of Germanic pagan tradition, but comparable folk myths are found throughout Northern, Western and Central Europe.[2] Grimm popularised the term Wilde Jagd ("Wild Hunt") for the phenomenon.
Seeing the Wild Hunt was thought to presage some catastrophe such as war or plague, or at best the death of the one who witnessed it.[3] People encountering the Hunt might also be abducted to the underworld or the fairy kingdom.[4] In some instances, it was also believed that people's spirits could be pulled away during their sleep to join the cavalcade.[5]
The concept was developed based on comparative mythology by Jacob Grimm in Deutsche Mythologie (1835) as a folkloristic survival of Germanic pagan tradition, but comparable folk myths are found throughout Northern, Western and Central Europe.[2] Grimm popularised the term Wilde Jagd ("Wild Hunt") for the phenomenon.
It's referenced a lot in heavy metal in Europe, like this Faroese band:
In North America, it took on different variances.
In Canada, there was a melding indigenous folklore of the Flying Canoe with the European Wild Hunt, like the French-Canadian myth La chasse-galerie
Since in Europe, the Wild Hunt happened in late December, Yule in pagan times, Christmas in Christian times, sometimes there was Christian meaning to it as well. French-Canadians also believed that Jesus as leading it, and that the Northern Lights was a sign of it. This is reflected in the lyrics of this traditional French-Canadian Christmas song, where children walk over a mountain on Christmas Eve and see the Northern Lights.
In the United States, it took on cowboy/Western/outlaw imagery as "Ghost Riders on the Storm". Now, cowboys come from Mexico, originally, so I am wondering if Mexico has similar myths.
In modern times, too, the American legend has also taken on the image of the outlaw biker
And melded with African-American outlaw myths