The Wild Hunt

"...some danced with spears flashing dully in the gray light, enacting the Wild Hunt."
-SM Stirling, The Protector's War (New York, 2006), Epilogue, p. 588.

See:

The Wild Hunt
The Wild Hunt
The Wild Hunt II

- and searching the blog for "The Wild Hunt" brings up some other references. However, I will now join not the Wild Hunt but the Lord Morpheus.

The Wild Hunt

We have read about the Wild Hunt:

"...the dead riding on the night wind..."
-Poul Anderson, "The Sorrow Of Odin The Goth" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006), pp. 333-465 AT 1980, p. 390.

"Something white flickered yonder - a scrap of cloud, or Swanhild riding behind the Wanderer?" (op. cit., 374, p. 465)

In Anderson's Three Hearts And Three Lions, Chapter Twenty-Four, Holger is pursued by the Wild Hunt, his last challenge:

faint far horns like wind, sea, wings, a hawk and a raven;
shouting wind;
shrilling, wailing anguish;
the horns of the damned;
hoofs in the sky;
immortal hounds baying;
shrieking sorrow;
the sound of the feet of nightmare dogs;
lunatic yelling;
when Holger looks back, Alianora's hair hides their pursuers;
metal ablaze;
dead men's bones clattering;
"...surely all men are pursued with us..." (p. 151);
- by striding Time and marching Chaos;
the Wild Hunt howling and sweeping downward;
clamoring winds and murk;
cold through the heart;
wind whistling between the ribs;
an overwhelming roar.

How will he get out of this one? A nightmare enacted, especially Alianora's hair hiding the pursuit.

I know a self-professed "Dark Wiccan" who worships Herne the Wild Hunter and acknowledges that Wodan was a previous version.

The Wild Hunt

"Soon after darkfall there came for a while the far-off sound of hoofs at gallop through the sky, outrunning the wind, and a baying and yelping. Skafloc himself shivered. The Wild Hunt was out."
-Poul Anderson, The Broken Sword (London, 1977), Chapter XX, p. 138.

In which other work or works does Anderson describe the Wild Hunt?

The dead go in several directions:

Hel
Niflheim
Valhalla
Aegir's Hall
the Wild Hunt
barrows, from which they can be recalled (see here)

The Wild Hunt II

See The Wild Hunt.

When I asked, "In which other work or works does Anderson describe the wild hunt?," I knew that I had read such an account recently but it looks as if it was in this same work. See here. Elf-earl Imric sees:

a huge eight-legged horse faster than the wind;
a rider with a long grey beard and a shadowing hat;
moonlight glinting on a spear and a single eye;
a troop of dead warriors;
hounds -

- and hears:

Odin's horn;
hooves like hail on a roof;
the howling of the hounds;
raving rain.

We catch glimpses of the Hunt in "The Sorrow Of Odin The Goth." Carl Farness tells Manse Everard that Wodan-Mercury-Hermes is:

the god of the wind;
therefore, the Wanderer;
the patron of travelers and traders;
wise;
well versed in poetry and magic;
the conductor to the Afterworld of the dead who ride on the night wind.

"They spoke of a blue-cloaked spearman who rode through the sky on a mount that was not a horse." (Time Patrol, pp. 368-369)

"Something white flickered yonder - a scrap of cloud, or Swanhild riding behind the Wanderer?" (p. 465)

Wold, Wild Hunt And Milky Way

Three Hearts And Three Lions.

"Moonlight flowed over the wold, gray, shadow-barred, glinting on rime."
-CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE, p. 149.

Every wold description here is worth quoting.

"Far and faint, at the very edge of hearing, the horns blew. They had the noise of wind and sea and great beating wings, a hawk voice, a raven voice. And Holger knew that the Wild Hunt was out and after him."
-CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR, p. 150.

The Hunt, barely audible, sounds like wind, sea, wings, hawk and raven because it is all those things plus human imagination. See Roots Of Paganism.

"Calling, as he used to call, faint and far away,
"In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day."
-see here.

(I previously quoted from "Sherwood" in Brake. See also Unexpected Connections.)

There is another description of the Milky Way.

He Knew Himself

Poul Anderson's Three Hearts And Three Lions, like his The Broken Sword, is not a mythological retelling but a sequel.

The ruined and abandoned church mentioned here is called St Grimmin's and is also where Holger's sword has been hidden. As soon as he reaches the church, the story is effectively over. The Wild Hunt backs off:

"Holger heard the mare cry out once, briefly and horribly, as the roaring overwhelmed her.
"And then it was gone. The wind was gone too. Silence shot up like a scream."
-Chapter Twenty-Four, p. 151.

After all that racket, sudden silence is as shocking as a scream. The old, lame Hell Horse lurks in the graveyard but leaves when Holger and his companions enter the church. Although the steeple has fallen, the roof is gone and the windows are empty, the crucifix is intact above the fallen chancel and Holger sees "...Christ's face against the stars." (p.152)

How significant are the stars in the works of Dante Alighieri, Poul Anderson and James Blish?

When Holger holds the sword Cortana, he knows himself:

Holger Danske;
Ogier le Danois;
a prince of Denmark;
given strength, luck and love by Faeries when in his cradle;
Charlemagne's finest knight;
defender of Christendie and mankind;
defeated, befriended and wandered far with Carahue of Mauretania;
when old, was taken to Avalon and rejuvenated by Morgan le Fay;
after a hundred years, returned to defend France and was carried away again;
either waits in timeless Avalon or sleeps beneath Kronborg Castle;
"...wakens in the hour of Denmark's need..." (p. 154).

After the Wild Hunt and the Hell Horse, there is yet one more enemy. The noise of an army, the earthquake hammering of hoofs, the sound of trumpets and the clangor or arms mark the riding forth on mankind of the host of Chaos. However, after Holger's self-recognition, only one more sentence is necessary to complete the narrative:

"He rode out on the wold, and it was as if dawn rode with him." (p.154)

There has been time for only brief farewells to Alianora and Carahue. If there is one disappointment, it has all been very abrupt.

Getting To Grips With The Texts

Recently on the blog I have summarized Poul Anderson's accounts of Avalon, a troll and the Wild Hunt. Why do I do this? My readers can read or reread Anderson's works for themselves. They certainly can and I try to encourage them to do so. But I personally find that I appreciate these works much more if I analyze and summarize chosen passages in this way whereas if instead I just read quickly through a novel to its happy ending or plot resolution, then I seem to skip over many of the intervening details, which come as a complete surprise on the next rereading. There is that much information, description and allusion on every square inch of a page. The texts are dense or condensed and some paragraphs should be scrutinized carefully at least twice even on a single reading of the novel.

I have yet to reread the conclusion of Three Hearts And Three Lions. And I do not remember how Holger eludes the Wild Hunt, claims his sword or defeats Chaos. We know that there is a "happy ending" of sorts, although Holger is not fully satisfied yet, but how does Anderson conclude the novel and does he do it as well as usual?

Out In The Weather

When Imric the elf-earl rides out at night:

"Presences moved in the night, but they were not men -" (The Broken Sword, p. 20)

We expect other supernatural beings but the presences turn out to be a wolf, a wildcat and small animals which:

"...were aware of the elf-earl's passage and shrank deeper into the gloom." (ibid.)

Animals would sense what most human beings would not.

In the elven castle, which looks like a tor, flutes have "...voices like mountain brooks..." (p. 21) and a troll-woman's voice is "...like a thunder..." (p. 22) Again, supernatural beings merge with natural phenomena. The troll is a prisoner and there are dwarf thralls. We can safely deduce that in this narrative every kind of mythological being exists.

"Mountainous in the east, with runes of lighting scribbled across, a storm stood on the horizon." (p. 23)

"...lighting..." should be "lightning"?

We have become very familiar with wild winds in Anderson's works and, sure enough, in the next sentence:

"Wind hooted and howled." (ibid.)

Shortly after that, thunder is:

"...boom and bang of great wheels across the sky." (ibid.)

No sooner have we thought of Thor than:

"Imric urged his horse to yet wilder speed. He had no wish to meet Thor out here in the night." (ibid.)

Gods also exist and an elf fears a god as the animals feared the elf. After stealing a human child, Imric sees Odin leading the Wild Hunt. A bad sign...

Finally, at the beginning of Chapter IV, the stolen child, Skafloc, begins to grow up in Alfheim where elven lays are:

"...like sea and wind and soughing branches." (p. 26)

Other Beings
Skirnir, messenger of the Aesir, attends Skafloc's naming-feast.
Sprites, dimly seen, inhabit waterfalls.
Gnomes live under trees.
Goblins live in caves.
Skafloc meets an exiled faun.

In the south:

Pan is dead;
the priests of the new god cut down the sacred groves;
exorcisms have killed dryads;
temples are empty and crumbling;
nymphs and Olympians are no more.

One world culture is being imposed.

Meanwhile, Skafloc, bridging the realms of men and elves, also learns from foxes and otters which might be kin to elves.

Arthur In Anderson

(i) Gratillonius, the last King of Ys, corresponds with British military leaders immediately after the Roman withdrawal from Britain, thus probably the generation before Arthur.

(ii) Hanno the immortal converts to Christianity at the court of the post-Roman British warlord, Artorius.

(iii) King Arthur and his knights from Avalon emerge from Glastonbury Tor to fight for Charles I against Cromwell in the Shakespearean timeline.

(iv) Arthur's sister, Morgan le Fay, remains active in the Carolingian timeline.

Also from the Tor comes "'...the true Wild Hunter, Gwyn ap Nudd, leading the heathen dead from Annwn...'"
-Poul Anderson, A Midsummer Tempest (London, 1975), Chapter xxiv, p. 218.

The Wiki articles show connections between Arthur and both Gwyn and the Wild Hunt.

The Evolving Goddess

Poul Anderson, "Star Of The Sea" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (New York, 2006), pp. 467-640.

I, pp. 467-469. Niaerdh creates sea life, sings rain or light, has the morning star on her forehead, sails an iceberg clad in fog, catches ships in a net, can drown the land with waves or bring her dowry of rain, comes to Frae on the rainbow, returns to her sea in the autumn but to his land in spring:

"'This shall be the year and every year henceforward.'" (p. 469)

Her daughters dance at the rim of the world.

II, pp. 557-561. Over the Wanes fighting the Anses, Naerdha steers her ship with the Ax of the Tree, casting eagles, white star on her brow. With Wotan's spear and Tiwaz's Helm, she pursues and kills Hoadh, the giant who attacked her. She changes his sons into black hounds, raids the Iron Lords, harries evil ghosts and leads the Wild Hunt.

III, pp. 624-628. The story is not of wild gods but of a man rewarded by a gentle goddess. Trees, vine, fruit, sea, ships, "...the well-being of mortals and peace among them" (p. 628) are Nehalennia's.

IV, pp. 639-670. "Mary, mother of God..." Hail, Star of the Sea.

The Golden Slave: Conclusion

In Poul Anderson's The Golden Slave (New York, 1980), a passage that I earlier quoted in part deserves some further attention:

"Eodan thought sometimes that the North might welcome such a god, more humanly brave than the dark, nearly formless wild Powers of earth and sky." (p. 214)

Anderson shows us human progress occurring in Eodan's mind. To admire personal qualities instead of fearing natural forces is a definite advance.

Tjorr can tell that his king Eodan will be deified:

" 'Will you remember old Tjorr when they begin to sacrifice to you?' " (p. 260)

(A bit like "Remember me when you come into your kingdom.")

Eodan has a strange dream. He is the wind with:

"...the unrestful slain Cimbri rushing through the sky behind him." (p. 258)

- Odin leading the Wild Hunt.

He passes a bloody hound (Garm) en route to hell but finds that "...hell was dead, it had long ago been deserted..." (p. 258)

What is he foreseeing here? A secular age when people no longer fear a hereafter?

In his dream, centuries pass. He rides past his own grave mound:

"...which stood out on the edge of the world where the wind was forever blowing..." (p. 258)

In Anderson's The Time Patrol (New York, 1991), a time traveler believed to be Wodan/Odin has a son who:

"...stayed unrestful...folk said that was the blood of his father in him, and that he heard the wind at the edge of the world forever calling." (p. 239)

Eodan's dream was four centuries earlier. In that dream, on the sheltered side of the grave mound is "...the first flower of spring." (p. 258)

- death and renewal. Earth turns beneath him among stars - knowledge that Earth spins in stellar space?

Eodan and Tjorr fight Romans under a stone roof supported by a pillar (Yggdrasil) that Tjorr smites, thus bringing the roof down on their enemies while he and Eodan escape into a tunnel dug earlier. Eodan, wounded in his left eye and not at this stage expecting to survive, thinks, "...gods and demons die in the wreck of their war." (p. 273)

- a modest beginning for the myth of Ragnarok. 

The Winter Of The World II

I have referred to Poul Anderson's The Winter Of The World as post-Ice Age, but the novel begins, "Once during the Ice Age..." (1)

In the novel, the Rogaviki, an entire population who turn out to be a new human species, live by hunting bison, moonhorn cattle, bronco, antelope, wild deer, caribou, moose and elk. This makes them sound like the most primitive of homo sapiens societies.

However, a multi-chimneyed, mostly underground Rogaviki dwelling surrounded by shed, smokehouse, workshop, stable, kennel and mews uses both a sunpower collector and a windmill manufactured in neighbouring urban civilizations and shelves hundreds of books in its principal chamber below.

The largest formal social group is a single family. Associations of families are informal. Households are self-sufficient in necessities but buy finely made goods either imported in exchange for metal salvaged from ancient ruins or manufactured at "Stations," where Rogaviki, frequently traveling alone, can swap ponies and self-employed postal couriers stay overnight. A Station is a set of independent businesses run by single women or misfit men.

Bullgore Station print shop can bind books but buyers usually do this in winter when they practice arts or enjoy idleness. One new pamphlet describes astronomical observations made by a man with an imported telescope and navigator's clock at Eagles Gather. Most paper is imported although Whitewater Station on the Wilderwoods edge has a paper mill. Rogavikian manufacture is expanding and innovative, e.g., a portable loom and a repeating crossbow. All manufacture and trade are private with no government, guilds or laws although no one would sell game meat or hides because they live by the game beasts.

Bullgore makes brandy and distils, from fermented wild grain and fruits, alcohol to fuel blow torches and small machine tools. Although there is a windmill, the main energy source is the solar collector sending water to a subterranean fired clay tank where pressure generates heat used for cooking and warmth. Domesticated horses, hounds and hawks are indistinguishable from their wild counterparts. Rogavikians live healthily on a mainly meat diet by eating the whole animal, adding fish, fowl, eggs, breads, mare's milk and cheese, fruits, herb teas, beer, wine and mead.

One Rogavikian seriously offended by another severs all relationship with the offender. Offenders of too many become Outrunners, vicious bandits.

A kith is a set of families traditionally sharing a single large hunting ground. Territorial herds define each kith's territory which no other kith ever invades although individual travelers are welcome guests and may hunt en route. There are less than a hundred kiths and each has at most three thousand members. Rogaviki women can control their fertility. In a cross-kith marriage, the man joins his wife's. A Rogavikian woman decides whether to become a wife of several husbands or to remain unmarried but with other sexual outlets.

(1) Anderson, Poul, The Winter Of The World, New York, 1976, p. 9.

"...the Change made all the old stories real."

SM Stirling, The Sword Of The Lady (New York, 2009), Chapter Sixteen, p. 471.

In Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword, all the deities coexist, including Odin and the White Christ, whereas, in SM Stirling's Emberverse, the deities have come into existence? Or something. I think. I don't know yet. Thus:

Rudi Mackenzie meets Odin and Father Bear in dreams;
Father Ignatius meets Mary in a waking vision;
we see someone else enter the Summerland;
a godwoman senses the Wild Hunt overhead.

It is comprehensible that, after the Change, several small groups took the opportunity to reorganize life on the bases of Wicca, Asatru, Tolkien etc but something else is happening as well. The old stories are becoming real.

Lir

Roma Mater (London, 1989) by Poul and Karen Anderson confirms on page 271 that, as their names suggest, the Ysan sea god, Lir, is indeed the father of the Irish sea god, Manannan mac Lir. This gives an even greater unity to Poul Anderson's historical fantasies. There are two generations of gods:

the father is active in the Ys tetralogy;

the son is a character in two of the five "Viking" novels, The Broken Sword and The Demon Of Scattery.

What is Lir's parentage? The vestals sing:

" 'Lir of Ocean, dawn-begotten...' " (p. 124).

A summary of the origins of Ys suggests that Lir as a deity might have pre-existed his association with the sea:

"Lir, whose cult was more ancient than colony or tribe, took unto Himself the awe and dread of the sea." (p. 212)

Manannan is humanoid (see image) whereas Lir, never anthropomorphized, is sometimes described as three-legged and single-eyed but only to evoke "...something strange and terrible." (p. 122)

Of the Ysan Triad, Belisama, "the Brightest One," incorporating Ishtar-Isis, is the most comprehensive. She:

leads Taranis back from the dead to reconciliation with Lir;
is present at the act of generation;
ts the triple goddess;
leads the dead in the Wild Hunt.

These are most of the functions of a deity?

The Wind Answers Twice

A Midsummer Tempest, xxiv.

After Rupert's incantation, the fire sinks, a cloud covers the Moon, stars fade and:

"Only the wind had speech; and its chill gnawed inward." (p. 216)

I frequently say that the wind comments. This time, it is even described as speaking. Rupert concludes that there is no help. But the wind does something else. Sir William - the text should no longer call him "Will" - feels:

"'...liake I war a dudelsack tha wind's about to play a jig for ghosts on.'" (p. 217)

The King and the Prince had not realized that their answer should come through a man of the land. Sir William, who took no part in the incantation, nevertheless responds to it. The fire leaps up, the cloud departs, stars brighten, the Tor opens, horns sound, the Wild Hunt and the Avalonian knights ride forth, ghosts of monks sing, "'Dies irae, dies illa...'" (p. 219)

More Mixed Mythologies In Works By Three Authors

In Neil Gaiman's The Sandman: The Kindly Ones, Morpheus' raven, Matthew, visits (Norse) Swartalfheim - and indeed is involuntarily yanked away from there when ravens gather in the Dreaming because it is threatened by the (Greek) Furies. Swartalfheim, home of the dark elves or dwarves, and Alfheim, home of the light elves, are two of the Nine Worlds in the Ash Tree, Yggdrasil.

Alfheim (scroll down) is in Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword. Yggdrasil is in Anderson's Operation Luna and in Mike Carey's Lucifer, the sequel to Gaiman's The Sandman. Carey also gives a big role to Fenris Wolf. Firespear's elf-hounds had:

"...blood of Gram and Fenris and the Wild Hunt's dogs in them."

-The Broken Sword, XII, p. 89.

In The Sandman: Season Of Mists, messages from the (Biblical) One God are relayed by an angel and the former appears as an elderly gentleman in modern garb in Lucifer. He exists but remains in the background in Anderson's The Broken Sword and Operation Chaos.

A Mutable Pantheon

Solomon sacrificed to Phoenician gods:

"Yahweh would not really be the sole Lord of the Jews until the Babylonian Captivity forced them to it, as a means of preserving an identity that ten of their tribes had already lost."
-Poul Anderson, "Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 229-331 AT p. 249.

"'Judaism, Yawhistic monotheism, is new and frail, still half pagan. My extrapolation is that it won't survive either. Yahweh will sink to being one more character in a crude and mutable pantheon.'"
-ibid., p. 308.

That monotheism is lost in Anderson's "Delenda Est" and "The House of Sorrows." The mutable pantheon seems to exist as a live proposition in his Operation Luna where Steve Matuchek reflects on:

the terrible side of Kokopelli;
the deadly arrows of Apollo;
Odin's Wild Hunt;
Huitzilopochtli, eater of hearts;
Jehovah's vengeances. (16, p. 147)

Going For Infinity

I have yet to read "Dialogue" and "The Communicators," the concluding two stories in Poul Anderson's collection, Dialogue With Darkness, but meanwhile I have started to read that capstone volume, Going For Infinity (New York, 2002). Poul Anderson died in 2001. I wrote then, "Our thoughts accompany Poul on the Wild Hunt," so I hope it is appropriate to repeat those words here.

In his Introduction to Going For Infinity, Poul Anderson summarizes his antecedents and early life, thus showing several major influences:

the sea;
Scandinavian history and culture;
"a solid and  loving home life" (p. 13);
Danish-English bilingualism;
from boyhood experience on a farm, "such themes...as countryside, cold, storm, animals, and men and women who make their livings by their hands" (p. 14);
science fiction magazines featuring "...the creations of Robert Heinlein, L. Sprague de Camp, and the other gods" (ibid.);
a degree in physics, mathematics and chemistry;
the Minneapolis Fantasy Society.

Anderson went straight from University to a long career as a full time writer. How many of his books feature the sea? (I will not write another of my long lists.) From Scandinavia, we get his Viking novels and Hrolf Kraki's Saga. The "themes" listed on p. 14 appear in many works, including the King of Ys Tetralogy, co-written by Karen Anderson. The influence of Robert Heinlein's Future History gives us Anderson's major and minor future histories. The influence of de Camp's Lest Darkness Fall is seen in the Time Patrol, which also gives us "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth." From Anderson's scientific knowledge and training come all the background details of many fictitious planets and other celestial bodies.

Joining the Minneapolis Fantasy Society must have seemed like coming home.

Holger Danske And Unwritten Sequels

Holger Carlsen, the hero of Poul Anderson's Three Hearts And Three Lions (London, 1977), turns out to be Holger Danske whose legendary status we nowadays can easily confirm by googling.

The full list of threats faced by Holger is:

a suit of armor;
Elf Hill;
a dragon;
a giant;
a werewolf;
a nixie;
a troll;
the Hell Horse;
the Wild Hunt.

Is the end rather abrupt? Having retrieved his sword Cortana and regained his memory:

"He rode out on the wold, and it was as if dawn rode with him." (p. 154)

But then we are back with the "outer narrator" visited by Holger who tells him:

"I rode out and scattered the hosts of Chaos, driving them before me." (p. 155)

That is all. Then Holger was back on this Earth in the Danish resistance helping Niels Bohr to escape from the Nazis, thus waging essentially the same fight in two worlds.

Despite Anderson's prolific output, there are sequels that were never written. Holger disappears again from this world but we do not see him return to the Carolingian world of his origin. We do see him lost between worlds later but not in a direct sequel to Three Hearts...

The Foreword to Anderson's The Broken Sword (London, 1977) ends:

"As for what became of those who were still alive at the end of the book, and the sword, and Faerie itself - which obviously no longer exists on Earth - that is another tale, which may someday be told." (p. 12)

But it wasn't.

Terrible And American Gods

Poul Anderson, Operation Luna (New York, 2000), Chapter 16.

Steve Matuchek lists terrible gods:

Kokopelli/Owiwi;
Apollo with his arrows;
Odin with his Wild Hunt;
Huitzilopochtli who eats hearts;
the vengeful Jehovah.

(I could put links to those divine names but page viewers can google them if they want to know more.)

When Matuchek says "...American gods..." (p. 150), he means "Native American gods," whereas when Neil Gaiman writes American Gods, (and see here) he means "immigrant gods." Some prose fiction reads as if its contents should have been presented in a visual medium. American Gods is to be televised and many of Anderson's works should be.