“In folklore, the Wild Hunt is an entourage of supernatural beings heard at night, mainly during late autumn and winter and especially around Christmas and New Year. The motif is spread all over Europe with different names of the leaders of the hunt, often a god, goddess or some mythological figure – sometimes an ancient legendary king – accompanied by the souls of the dead. In the Germanic variant it is often Odin (Woden, Wotan) who leads the hunt, accompanied by fearsome ghostly dogs. Not infrequently, dead warriors appear as part of the hunting entourage, sometimes whole armies, and the leader of the hunt often appears as a warrior on horseback.”
- Anders Kaliff & Terje Oestigaard, Werewolves, Warriors and Winter Sacrifices (Unmasking Kivik and Indo-European Cosmology in Bronze Age Scandinavia)
