English Folklore |
The Wild Hunt The legend of the wild hunt stretches far back to the time of our Heathen ancestors, for it was believed by them that the god Woden himself led the hunt followed by other supernatural spirits. Stories and tales of the wild hunt have survived and are still told today which, is testament to the strength and wide spread belief in the legend. |
This page was last
updated on: March
10, 2004
Through time the hunt took on many different shapes and forms and changed it's participants and leader according to time and place, for example, in Worcestershire the hunt was known as the seven whistlers, in Northern England it was called Gabriels hounds and as far west as Cornwall it was known as Dando's hounds. And not surprisingly other legends report that the devil himself |
led the hunt, in early Christian times the devil usually replaces Heathen god in many myths and legends. People would often report hearing the galloping and cries at night of the hunt as it passed by overhead, and at times the hunt took on a more sinister meaning as a forteller of bad news and the bringer of death. Puck Pucks were supernatural beings/spirits that could be identified with other troublesome characters such as goblins and dwarves. The name itself goes far back to ancient Germanic times, and is even recorded amongst the Celts too which, points to an even more distant history of the word. Today the Puck is more associated with Shakespeare for the character of the Puck appears in his Midsummer Nights Dream. But it wasn't only Shakespeare that brought new life to the mischievous Puck, for other famous names of literature such as Spenser and Langland did too, the Puck was certainly a favourite character of Elizabethan and Medieval literature. The Puck also appears in the folklore of Sussex where a man who spies on his little helpers overhears one of them say, "I say, Puck, I sweats, do you sweat?". The Puck is recorded many times and in many places throughout England showing the belief the English people had in such a being. Robin In English folklore the robin is sometimes associated with both good and bad luck, and both life and death. A robin pecking at your |
windows or entering your house is said to bring death to the owner, and as far back as the 16th century it was said that if a robin found the body of a dead person it would cover the body with moss, leaves and flowers. "Hurt a robin or a wran, Never prosper, boy or man". |
The above rhyme points to the belief that to hurt or injure a robin will surely bring the person much bad luck. Sources speak of cows giving bloody milk and buildings burning down all brought on by the bad luck associated with robins. Hob In Northern England hobs were a hairy and rough type creature that worked to bring prosperity to farms, but under different circumstances they were thought to be easy to annoy and could thus become a nuisance to human beings. Ridding yourself of a mischievous hob was thought by many to be an impossible task, whereas it is also said that giving a hob new clothes would allow the hob to leave forever. The first appearance of hobs in literature is in the 15th century and in following centuries hob was found in compounds such as hobgoblin. Herne the Hunter In The Merry Wives of Windsor written by William Shakespeare in 1597 we find mention of a being known as Herne the Hunter, in the story we read: "There is an old tale goes, that Herne the hunter, Sometime a keeper here in Windsor forest, Doth all the winter time, at still midnight, Walk round about an oak, with great ragg'd horns, And there he blasts the trees, and takes the cattle, And makes milch kine yield blood, and shakes a chain, In a most hideous and dreadful manner." The legend of a huntsman known as Herne is very much real and not |
just a creation of Shakespeare's mind. Within Windsor Park there was even an oak tree known as Herne's Oak which was sadly cut down in the 1790's. Other parts of the legend say that Herne was a gamekeeper who was an expert huntsmen and a very skilled craftsman who hanged himself on the oak tree after being dismissed from his position by the king when he lost his skills. The loss of his skills came about when he protected the king from the attack of a stag by taking the blow himself. Seemingly dead a figure appeared known as Philip Urswick, Philip cut off the stags head and attached it to Hernes own, in |
time Herne recovered but without his hunting and craftsman skills. Angered by this the king dismissed Herne resulting in a saddened herne hanging himself from the tree. Many have tried to associate Herne with the Heathenism of our ancestors, for it is easy to see the huntsman Herne as a possible leader of the night time wild hunt. There is also his association with the oak tree, a tree that was sacred to both ancient Celtic and Germanic peoples, including the Anglo-Saxons who associated it with the thunder god. Although there is no concrete evidence of a connection between Herne and the far more ancient beliefs of our ancestors, the similarities between the Herne legend and ancient Heathen belief suggest that there could be such a connection. |
