The Wild Hunt in Arthurian Folklore

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This is NOT a page about Wiccans or neo-pagans, and I do not advocate the belief that Wiccans are Satan-worshippers and/or baby-killers. I am well aware that they are not. This is a starting point for historical research into the great witch craze of 1100-1700 AD. And please, don't ask me for spells.

The Wild Hunt in Arthurian Folklore

King Arthur "was reputed to join other spectral figures (such as Gwyn ap Nudd, the lord of Annwfn and Glastonbury Tor) in...the Wild Hunt, careering through the clouds summoning the souls of evildoers and unbaptised infants" (Ashe 244).

The Anglo-Saxons did make a conribution to Arthurian folklore. This was the Wild Hunt. Originally a gallop among the clouds by Woden and his Nordic companions, it became, in Britain, a more elaborate affair. Among the new huntsmen were Gwyn ap Nudd with his white, red-eared hounds, and Arthur himself in some spectral guise. The Wild Hunt spread to the continent as the Chasse Artu. The huntsmen summoned ghosts of the dead and the souls of unbaptised infants. Their visitations, especially with hounds (Gwyn's or others), could be portentous of doom (Ashe 284).

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The Wild Hunt in Arthurian Folklore is copyright 1998 to Shantell Powell.