The Wylde Hunt

By: Paxton Suggs

Before we begin: two truths.

First, outside of Abrahamic traditions (and the traditions that informed them), no other major faith traditions support forever-hell. There are all sorts of nasty trials and punishments awaiting you once you pass through the open maw of the Earth to enter into the Olmec afterworld; the Naraka of Buddhist and Hindu faiths are certainly to be afeared; the journey through Duat to have your heart weighed against a feather by Osiris is certainly nothing to look forward to; and under no circumstances would you ever want to be caught up by The Wylde Hunt, but, none of those experiences are designed to be forever-hells for any but the most wicked (and even then only because they have so much debt to repay).  These things are known.Second, we think of hunting today as an individual effort. A man (almost always a man) gets in a truck (almost always a truck) with a dog (sometimes) and a gun (we tend to think) to head out for the day (travel time + 3-6 hrs “in the field” ) to hunt and kill game according to regulations made by governing bodies. This was not the norm for all of human existence prior to the invention of the gun.

Instead, for almost all of human history, the height of ballistic technology was the sling for shot and atlatl for spears. Bows and arrows strong enough to kill large game (including humans) did not come for some time, and that technology becoming widespread did not come until a fair bit later.I say that to clarify that hunting any game taller than your knee with teeth for rending for most of human history had a high probability of causing death and disfigurement. For this reason, the lone hunter was rare, and it was that at certain times of year, folk from villages, towns, settlements, communes, outposts, etc. took as many men (at least according to the surviving histories) with them on hunts as possible and went hunting for as long as possible because it was difficult to organize logistically. Too few men meant higher likelihood of death and/or failure, too many men meant that life/work in the village would grind to a halt because they would not be there to lend their labor to the labor intensive lifestyle of many indigenous peoples.

So it was that hunting became a seasonal affair so that the absence of the hunters could be accommodated and scheduled around because our inefficient hunting tools meant we needed overwhelming numbers to safely subdue game. We basically (elegantly and with total connection to the land and nature) mobbed food to death, and once the food was dead, many hands made light work, and some could return to the village with food, and others who were still strong could go on and continue hunting, and all of the people would eat and rejoice in the meantime.After returning to the village with the food and getting a good night’s sleep and filling their bellies, they would head out again, tracing the path of the hunters who stayed on the trail. Eventually they would find the group, sometimes heading back with a fresh kill, smiling ear to ear. 

They could have then stopped, shared some broth from the village, sat and discussed where the party should go next, what trails they saw, smile more, tell each other that this is turning out to be a good hunt, and, at some point, an Uncle will pull aside a nephew and say something to the effect of, “With the meat you bring home, this winter will be easy, you won’t even need to gather wood as long as you work hard to put a baby inside your pretty new bride. When you have a crying child, then you will understand the joy of the hunt.” The men will laugh and laugh and laugh.Some things that should, have not yet changed.I begin to digress, but I say this so that you understand that a hunt, for almost all of human history, was a collection of hunters who came together to relay race/tag team rove large swathes of land over extended periods of time. They just followed the game until they could no longer or no longer needed to.That is very much not the vibe of The Wylde Hunt.

First brought to worldwide recognition in 1835 after the publication of Deutsche Mythologie by Jacob Grimm (yes, that one), The Wylde Hunt was described as a roving band of blood lusted hunters whose greed for dominance led them to take too much from the land. It was a sort of yearly collection of the lost souls at the Winter Solstice who had erred somehow and not moved on. A collection of fall leaves if leaves were the souls of the unchosen, and the leaf truck was a demonic war horse led by Odin, and manned by any other number of diabolical figures from history damned for eternity like Prometheus, but as the liver loving raptor, not the sympathetic giver of fire.The Hunters of The Wylde Hunt, have lost themselves over to The Hunt, they are mad despite themselves; you might think of vampires resisting their nature or werewolves doing everything they can to prevent the beast within from manifesting without. The Hunters have lost the battle unequivocally. They are The Hunt embodied. The Hunters are terrible and damned to be of The Hunt until they have repaid the land through their yearly solstice soul sweeping. 

Prior to The Hunt, the call for Hunters is sent out far and wide, and if the veil is thin enough, those who are attuned or know what to listen for can feel the hoofbeats, hear the call, and see the torches in the distance. It is a terrible omen to witness The Wylde Hunt as one who has not yet left physicality. It implies affinity. Affinity implies shared experience, and you do not want to share an experience with The Wylde Hunt.Here, I would like to apologize that I can only convey so much in the amount of space I have and have attempted to convey to you the spirit of The Wylde Hunt that you may understand better what it is: Penance, Redemption, Service, Consequence, Compulsion, and given enough time, Surrender (almost every single time… those are fun stories too, ask me about it).

Here is the practical advice I can offer you in parting:

They (Odin and his ilk) send out the call for Hunters to assemble about a month before the solstice, if you think you heard something, no you didn’t. Keep mineral/ sea salt in your pockets, every single one, if you must go out at night. If you are caught up in The Hunt (while alive), you are there to witness, you are being given a chance at redemption in this life. You have been given a boon from your higher power exactly like George Bailey. I promise you, it is a wonderful life, and your goal is to hang on and witness and feel and learn and integrate and survive until the Solstice. It’s a Wonderful Life is a rose-tinted transatlantic retelling of The Wylde Hunt designed for 1950s sensibilities. It was based off Dickens’ (yes, that one) A Christmas Carol.Fun fact: Charles Dickens’ favorite story, the one he called his “first love” was “Little Red Riding Hood.” Dickens was born in 1812. The Grimms first published “Little Red Riding Hood” in 1812. Correlation is not causation.

They can only keep the living until the Solstice, if they survive until then, they have successfully earned release from The Wylde Hunt, and must eventually be compensated for their detainment.These things have been said to you.

I seek to say more.

Pax Alexander