Harlequin and the Wild Hunt

Disclaimer

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.

Harlequin and the Wild Hunt

This colorful figure is familiar from the commedia dell'arte and pantomime but, if you look closely at his tradition costume, you may see some hint that he was once Hellquin and led a Wild Hunt of fellow demons. The Norse superstition went from Norway to Normandy to Britain and in time we had The Devil and his Dandy Dogs or damned souls rushing through the skies. He devolved also into a demon from of King Herla (in Walter Map's chronicle), into Samuel Harsnett's demon Hellwain (in a book Shakespeare knew and quoted), and into Herne the Hunter, whom Shakespeare talks of haunting Windsor Forest (in The Merry Wives of Windsor). His antics onstage often remind us of the vice of medieval drama (Ashley 226).

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Harlequin and The Wild Hunt is copyright 1998 to Shantell Powell.