Case file · Folklore / legend
The Wild Hunt
A European folklore motif of a ghostly host of hunters racing across the sky, led by Odin or another figure, whose passing is an omen.
1835 CE · 51.32, 9.50 · status: legend
The account
Jacob Grimm developed the concept in his Deutsche Mythologie (1835). Spanish sources record it from the 13th century as the hueste antigua, and highwaymen in the Low Countries used the legend in the 18th century.
The sceptical view
It is a comparative-mythology motif; the 'hunt' is not a documented event.