Wild Hunt
Phantom riders' procession
The Wild Hunt is a supernatural procession from European folklore—a ghostly cavalcade of hunters, hounds, and horses that sweeps across the night sky, led by a spectral figure (often Odin, King Arthur, or a local legendary huntsman).
Seeing the Wild Hunt was an omen of catastrophe: war, plague, or the viewer's own death.
The motif appears across Germanic, Celtic, and Scandinavian traditions, and has been revived in fantasy literature and games.
They heard the Wild Hunt riding through the storm.
Rapid following of quarry
- houndsDogs bred to track
- quarryPit for extracting rock
- gallopSwiftest quadruped gait
- thunderStorm's acoustic aftermath
hooves · baying · howling · coursing · sweep · stampede · rampage · relentless
Ghostly threatening presence
- phantomInsubstantial apparition
- wraithSpectral apparition of someone
- spiritSoul, mood, or liquor
- shadeDarkness from blocked light
revenant · ghostly · spectral · ethereal · incorporeal · otherworldly · haunting · cavalcade
chase
Rapid following of quarry
thunder · hooves · baying · howling · coursing · sweep · stampede · rampage · relentless · furious
specter
Ghostly threatening presence
shade · revenant · ghostly · spectral · ethereal · incorporeal · otherworldly · haunting · cavalcade · procession
Odin
Chief Norse deity
saga · Germanic · Norse · Celtic · Slavic · pagan · midwinter · solstice · tradition · ballad
foreboding
Fearful anticipation of harm
death · plague · war · catastrophe · warning · dread · sinister · menacing · ill-fated · cursed
Wild Huntangelic host
Assembled celestial beings
heavenly choir · guardian angels · Easter procession · harvest celebration · fertility rite
wild, hunt, hunter, hunting, wildly, hunted, wilderness, wildlife, wildness