Lecouteux, C. (2011). Phantom armies of the night: The wild hunt and ghostly processions of the undead. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions.
Example of part of the timeline I put together
BC
501 – 301 BC – an anonymous author
Alludes to ‘the nocturnal host of Hecate’ that is known to appear to show itself at night
460 – 370 BC – Hippocrates
Talks about Hecate, the goddess of the crossroads, and terrifying images that appear at night. Greeks use purification rites and charms to protect themselves from her.
400 – 301 BC – In ‘Argonautica’ by Apollonius of Rhodes
Speaks of a nightly apparition given the name ‘Hekateia’.
Surprisingly, demons and evil beings were not simply ‘changed’ to the beings of the stories during the spread of Christianity. There were well developed beliefs prior to the time that night was the time of the demons and their realm. There was a universal belief that day drove off demons and night attracted them.
100 BC – 500 AD – Gallo-Roman period
Referencing 1952 Philippe Walter. 3 clay statues found in a field of urns dating to the Gallo-Roman period. Depicts a Matrona, a child, a rooster, and dog.
Believes the dog represents death, the cock resurrection.
Swedish have a saying “the dead are put to flight by a red rooster”.
When Latvians felt threatened by Meris, the Plague Virgin, they sacrificed a black cat, black rooster, and black dog. ‘The blood of these three was used to coat a rope twisted backward, which was then used to gird [guard?] the house’.
Celts put a chicken or goose egg in tombs to symbolize resurrection. A celtic woman was also found in a tomb with a cup with give chicken eggs.
Geren, Upper Valais, has an anthromopomorphic figure of a woman with the lower half of a rooster.
39 – 65 – Lucan writes –
“Among the marvels that preceded the civil war the perception of the sounds of trumpets in the skies and a clamor such as that produced in battle”.
47 – 15 BC – Propertinus –
Writes in Elegies’, he writes of revenants whom return to Hades at dawn, “puts these words in their mouths: “By night we range in wandering flight; night frees the prisoned shades, and Cerberus himself strays at will, the bar that chains him cast aside. At dawn hell’s ordinance bids us return to the pools of Lethe.”
44 BC - Ovid notes -
“Among the number of marvels that heralded the death of Caesar, Ovid cites “the rattling of weapons in the black clouds, the sound of terrifying trumpets and horns in the sky”.
19 BC – 17 BC – Virgil writes -
“In Germany the clash of weapons could be heard resounding through the heavens. . . . Ghosts of an odd pallor could be seen at the fall of night”.
19 BC – "Gallaeci" (Galicians) named by the Romans.
People from Spain called Gallaeci by the Romans. This is an estimated guess of the possible beginning of where the Santa Campaña originated.
Also called Estadea, Güestia (Asturias)
and Estantiga (deformation of the Latin hostis antiquus, the name of the devil)
Infernal Hunt
Appears in October, from December to March, even on days such as Saturday, between midnight and 1am.
Procession of the dead, whoever sees them, becomes their new leader.
Characteristics later become Rome, bearer of the cross, and a herald whom tells the living to stay away.
AD
23 – 79 – Pliny the Elder notes
“That during the campaign against the Cimbrians “the din of weapons and the sound of a trumpet were heard in the sky.” He also tells of the appearance of armies in the sky in the third consulship of Marius, “the people of America and Tuder saw heavenly armies marching from the west and east to join battle. The army from the west was put to flight”.
39 – 65 – The poet Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, known as Lucan
Depicts the god Ogmios, an infernal psychopomp, pulling a large group of men attached to each other by the ears with gold chains and amber, resembling necklaces.
150 – Pausanius
Speaks of the ghosts of the battle of Marathon - “At Marathon every night you can hear horses neighing and men fighting. No one who has expressly set himself to behold this vision has ever received any good from it”.
177 - Aulus Gellius writes Attic Nights –
Explains beliefs being mixed together. “The Matronae quickly incorporated into the goddesses of fate/the Partcae and thus also with the dead”. Also identified them with midwives, and gave the name of one of them, Morta. Beliefs appear to be around mother goddesses who controlled fate and brought news of death. “Kin to them are Dises (disir) who are often confused with the Norns, the Germanic Parcae, the Valkyries, and the Swan Women”.
201 – 400 – an Orphic hymn alludes to Hecate
“Daughter of the Titan Perses, who wanders the night with a retinue of the dead and dogs”.
270 – 340 – Eusebius of Caesarea
“informs us that the leaders of the spirits that rule the night are the demons Serapis and Hecatez—Beelzebub.”
314 – Council of Ancyra –
First mention of ‘Ladies of the Night’, or doubles.
360 – 370 – ‘Confession of Saint Cyprien’ written.
A rooster interrupts the Sabbath to tell about wondering demons that are active at night, and yet when the rooster crows they flee.
363 – 406/410 – Sulpicius Severus
Gives a description of a spiritual invasion of a monastery in his work ‘Life of Saint Martin’.
“Toward midnight the entire monastery gave the impression of swaying to the muted noise of people walking about; in the young man’s cell numerous lights could be seen glittering as well as a dull sound of many people going to and fro, and the murmur of many voices.”
401 – 600 – Confusion of ancient ‘Diana’
Margaret Murry explains that ‘Diana’ a prominent figure worshipped by peasants of the time, is not the well known Roman Diana, but the rural Sylvan goddess Diana. Also possibly known as Di Ana or Anu to the Celts. Di Anu was also mistaken by others for a male deity, resulting in the name Dianum, and Asturian Dianu.
401 – 601 Phantom Armies- Damascius
Tells how Atilla wages a battle at the walls of Rome, ‘after which the souls of the dead still fight there with singular ferocity for three days and nights’.
500 AD – Gallo-Roman period ends
Cock and dog symbolism stop.
500 – 570 – Procopius of Caesarea
Writes[B1] of the dead forming a group together before their final transition. Also the them of souls becoming stars.
“In Brittany, the Bay of the Departed was regarded as the site from which these boats embarked”.
Believed that in between death and the bodies Christian burial, the soul had to be judged, usually by St. James of Compostela, then waiting until the Last Judgment.
Reflections of “souls transform into stars”, or following a path of stars,
“Ariège and Couserans, the Milky Way is called Path of Souls”.
“The pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela follow the Milky Way toward the Campus Stellae, the Star Field”.
“In the Aran Valley, dying is the equivalent of taking the path of St. James (eth camin de san Jacou)”.
“Involves passage over St. James’s Bridge, because Santiago is associated with the Milky Way as the road of the dead”.
“The Foix region to the Aran Valley, the passage to the otherworld is affected by a Cart of Souls.*56 On the eve of a death, the devil comes to borrow oxen to pull this cart.
In Andorra, the Car dels difunts is almost identical to the cart of the Breton Ankou. In other places, souls make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, site of another portal to the otherworld”.
538 – 594 – Gregory of Tours accounts-
Gives multiple examples of spirits celebrating Mass. [B2] A story is told of a priest who travels to a church to find it inhabited by spirits. A woman who recently died told him he does not have long to live. He is tossed out in his bed. He is burned by the spirits when he tries to stay the night again with relics and holy water, and is told the night belongs to the dead and the day belongs to the living.
542 – Césaire of Arles –
“The canonists and clerics note that offerings or gifts are placed on the set table (mensas cum dapibus vel epulis in domibus preparare). Sometimes the rite is referred to by two words:
mensas ornare. A Munich manuscript from the Alderspach Monastery alludes to those who “garnish their table for Percht.”
590 – 787 – Paulus Diaconus[B3]
“Paulus Diaconus (ca. 720–787), the historian of the Lombards, notes that during the year 590, marked by a great pestilence, the noise of battle trumpets, and a noise like the sound of an army can be heard both night and day.”
674 – 714 – Felix of Crowland-
Describes a demonic attack at St. Guthlac; indicating the demons travel in groups, rarely alone.
675 – 754 – St. Boniface-
“The canonists and clerics note that offerings or gifts are placed on the set table (mensas cum dapibus vel epulis in domibus preparare). Sometimes the rite is referred to by two words:
mensas ornare. A Munich manuscript from the Alderspach Monastery alludes to those who “garnish their table for Percht.”
695 - Valerio of Bierzo writes ‘The Vision of Bonellus’
“Says three fallen angels appeared, one being a giant”.
c. 700 - Oskoreia – Wild Hunt Origins
Norway - between Christmas and Epiphany or Santa Lucia Day. Called ‘The Terrifying Ride’ or ‘Lussiferdi’. Talk about masked men riding horses.
Scandinavia - the twelve-day cycle can run from December 13 to Christmas or from Christmas to January 13
“We can note other names in evidence—Julereia, Trettenreia, Fossareia, and Imridn—all including the word rei or reid, meaning “to ride,” “to go by horse,” sometimes grafted on the determiners Jul/Jól (Christmas) or Imbre/Imbredagene. These terms designate the four days of Lent of the liturgical year (ieiunia quatuor) and Fosse (name of a spirit).² There is also another name for this time of the year: Trettenreia or Trettandreia, “the troop of horsemen of the thirteenth day (of winter)”.
“The Oskoreians slipped into houses and cellars and stole the food and emptied the kegs of beer, which they refilled with water”.
701 – 800 – ‘Visions of Saint Fursy’[B4] .
New theme appeared in stories about the Revelations, demons fighting over the human soul while in the otherworld, as the body sleeps at home. Demons heads recall the tiny men in the coffins of Orderic Vitalis’s Mesnie Hellequin.
720 – 787 – Paulus Diaconus
“Paulus Diaconus (ca. 720–787), the historian of the Lombards, notes that during the year 590, marked by a great pestilence, the noise of battle trumpets, and a noise like the sound of an army can be heard both night and day”.
790 – 871 – “The Muspilli,” an alliterative poem composed in Bavaria.
Mentions an army of devils, the souls fate after death, last judgement, angels and devils battling for the soul of the human. These battles seem to show the idea of a celestial militia dedicated to goodness and God was extremely popular. Pre-Christian dead seem to turn into Christian angels.
872 – Capitularies of Charles the Bald –
second ‘appearance’ of’ Ladies of the Night’.
Etc.
Dates relating to the Wild Hunt
Winter, Holy Week, and summer.
Winter
St. Martin’s Day (November 11), to the Chair of St. Peter (February 22).
“…with two periods of high holy days, Advent and the twelve days, separating Christmas and Epiphany. In the Palatinate, for example, the Wild Hunt was abroad during Advent, but in Swabia it appeared precisely on the day of St. Thomas (December 21)”.
Norway: Oskoreia/Night of Santa Lucia, December 13
It was noted that beliefs ranged that Christmas came anywhere from 3, 11, or 12 days later.
Santa Lucia Day pre-Gregorian calendar = shortest day of the year, beginning of winter
Masquerades were common, along with other rites. Sweden called the spirits whom formed the retinue Lussegubber, Lussen, and Lussiner.
Switzerland
Beginning of the 16th century, 1501 – 1600.
3 days before Christmas was the “noisy night” (bolster nächt) or “hunt of the sträggele.”³
Sträggele = Howler (Schrat),” a kind of dwarf that was sometimes combined with a nightmare (mar)”.
The name is used in current day to refer to the masks made and used in the Carnival processions.
St. Crispin’s Day – October 25
“…there emerges the Scälarageister, which can be translated as “souls of purgatory” insofar as the third site is called Scälaratobel in the Grisons,*80 and they ride horses whose nostrils spit fire. Another purgatory is located in the Lötschental.⁴ In Switzerland and Alsace, Hutata is on the move during the twelve days, and takes his name from the scream he unleashes”.
Lithuania
Autumn Festivals (Ilges) – almost corresponds to All Saint’s Day (November 1st)
Lasts for 10 days
3 of which are fully dedicated to the worship of the dead - “At this time, the dead were invited to leave their graves to bathe and feast,⁵ and the Wild Hunt was abroad”.
Other dates of mention:
Easter – First Sunday after the full moon that occurs on or just after the spring equinox
Pentecost (7th Sunday after Easter)
Walpurgis Night (April 30–May 1) ,
St. John’s Day (June 24),
St. Peter’s Day (June 29),
St. Bartholomew’s Day (August 24). “during the meatless times of the Ember Days (first week of Lent, the week of Pentecost, third week of September, Advent)”
[According to the Farmer’s Almanac:
3 days, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday
after the Feast of St. Lucia, December 13
the First Sunday in Lent
the third set comes after Whitsunday/Pentecost Sunday
last set comes after the Feast of the Holy Cross]
St. Martin’s Day = end of the fiscal year and beginning of the new year, also beginning of winter.
St. Batholomew’s Day = beginning of autumn
St. John’s Day – Christian representation of Janus/two-faced/ Janus bifrons – a god that looked two ways at once due to having two heads. This was also a pivotal point in the year.
St. Martin’s Day = the end of autumn
According to Cysat –
All of these holidays had “masked processions; a ceremonial reception of the dead, who are then led back outside of the village”.
Along with representation the ending and beginning of the year. Purifications were extremely important.
February 22.
The Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, replaced an ancient ceremony of ancestor worship called ‘di parentes’ or ‘dies parentales.’
One of the many leaders of the Wild Hunt is Goï (Westphalia)
Goï, also corresponds to the Scandinavian Goï, the name of the fifth month in winter, now at the end of February or beginning of March.
March 1st being the new year
Goï was when there would be purification rituals, commemorations of the dead, and rites to expel winter.
This is also nearly the same as the Greek Anthesteria, and Roman Lupercalia; when the dead were given permission to rein free on the world, and to purify and drive out demons.
In Sweden, Goï was a sacrifice, celebrated in the spring equinox.
It has been noted that the name for an important festival was anthropomorphized, examples being:
the Befana is the personification of Epiphany
Perchta personifies Christmas.
Times it takes place:
Between eleven o’clock and midnight
Between midnight and one in the morning
Midnight (Silesia)
Noon (Allgäu and Bavaria)
“Latvian folk songs [B1] (dainas) offer us some invaluable information in this regard. The dead make their way to the otherworld successfully by being buried before noon, the hour that marks the beginning of the setting of the sun and the transition to twilight”.
Common Denominator
“All indicate key times of the year that involve changes, ends, or beginnings—in short, they are all transitional periods”.
Easter- a key to the entire medieval calenadar
French name Pâques, comes from Latin Pascua, Greek paskha, Hebrew pesah, “passage” or Passover. English Easter comes from Old English Eostre and the Old High German Ostara, a goddess of dawn with feasts in April.
It is an equinoctal spring rite, a lunar festival, and considered the death of winter and introduction of spring.
“Mircea Eliade cites an eighth-century text: “the Alamans sought to expel winter during the month of February,” and points out more than one custom for expelling death”.
All share the traditional theme of the dead and living becoming close and intertwining.
This is echoed in fall rights.
Halloween (October 31
Celtic Samhain[B2] (November 1) In ancient Ireland this was the time when the Army of the Sidhe left the otherworld to roam the earth.
“… Hallewijn, which E. Smedes connects to Halloween and to the religious conceptions of the ancient Celts (oud-Keltishe voorstellingen).¹² Hallewijn, whose name is quite close to Herlewin (seen the work by Pierre de Blois) is sometimes regarded as the leader of the Wild Hunt”.
Silesia and in Austria,
the twelve days that span the period from Santa Lucia’s Day to Christmas-
Oracular, divinatory, and soothsaying practices and rites
Prefigured what the next 12 months would be like, including the weather
Rites to protect homes and farms
All dates had prohibitions effecting various work, spinning mostly.
Marriages were also prohibited in May because of the fear that the spouse could be a revenant or woman from the otherworld.
Libations and Feasts
Libations, feasts, masquerades, noise, rattles, whips, feasts, offerings of food and drink, areas being cleaned, specific work not being done
Dead
Preside over fertility of the soil
And abundance of livestock
Similar to ancestor worship
The go-betweens between men and the gods
Pre-Christian cycle of feasts that very on the day due to the lunar phase
Celtic and German – two large seasons, summer May 1 – Nov 1. Winter, Nov 1 – May 1.
Odin and the Wild Hunt
Due to the ‘tendency to discover mythological survivals in folk traditions’, German researches for a long time have been ignored by the public about the realty that Odin as leader of the Wild Hunt. While prevalent in folk tales, the reality is that these stories have very little foundation. Many older stories also create error and confusion, as they mix up or make no clear distinctions against the varying beings like the cursed, diabolical, wild huntsman’s, and the furious army.
Jacob Grimm is well known for studying not only fairytales but Germanic ones.
SAME THING
Cursed Huntsman
Mesnie Hellequin
Furious Army
Wild Army (east of Rhine River)
Etc.
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