Pages:  33-57 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.55086/sp2623357

This article examines the ancient origins of the folkloric motif of the Wild Hunt, which was widely disseminated across Europe during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. The origin of this tradition and its original meaning are reconstructed through an analysis of its three main components: the figure of the Wild Huntsman, his retinue, and the object of the hunt. It is argued that folkloric versions of this narrative reflect only in a distant and fragmentary way the underlying nature of the cultural phenomenon in question, while nevertheless preserving certain archaic features. The term “Wild Hunt” functions as an umbrella designation for a set of relatively independent aspects of social practice and religious belief in ancient societies. On the one hand, the Wild Hunt may be interpreted as a mythological reflection of age-graded social institutions, in which initiation practices, marginal male youth associations, and nocturnal predatory hunting are progressively transformed into the image of a supernatural collective pursuit. On the other hand, the motif is associated with the intrusion of otherworldly demonic forces into the human world and corresponds to ideas of soul abduction and its transfer into the realm of the dead. Thus, the Wild Hunt appears as a multilayered mythological construct in which elements of social organization, warrior ideology, and eschatological beliefs are interwoven.

Keywords: mythology, folklore, Wild Hunt, initiations, male unions, Master of Animals, psychopomp, dogs, ghost hounds, Eneolithic, Bronze Age, Middle Ages, Cucuteni-Tripolye culture

Information about author:

Igor Manzura (Kishinev, Moldova). Doctor of History. National Museum of History of Moldova. 31 August St., 121a, Chişinău, MD-2012, Moldova
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID: 0009-0004-2848-4307