Phantom Armies of the Night Quotes

“We should not be surprised to see this diurnal hour: it is just as dangerous as midnight and witnesses the appearance of the noon demon, Meridiana. Both the middle of the day and the middle of the night are temporal portals that establish a connection between this world and the other.”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“The leader of the Wild Hunt was certainly a psychopomp deity before he was recast as a demon. The last traces of his former identity are his gigantic size and club (Orderic). It is not obligatory for this deity to be a composite figure, for we can understand the cock and the dog as attributes rather than as a reference to his morphology. It is worth being cautious on this point, however, for the cock and the dog may well have been separated from this morphology in an anthropomorphic transformation of the deity.”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“If we attempt a hypothetical timeline of the facts, we end up with this: According to an ancestral belief, the dead roamed the earth on certain dates and played an important role in the happiness of the living, because they governed fertility and prosperity. To honor them, propitiate them, or protect ourselves from them, we formed societies (brotherhoods, fraternities, and so forth) that depicted them or mimed them by means of masks and disguises. This action derived from ancestor worship and held an important social function. Distinct entities—originally, these two troops, one of the departed, the other of disguised living men—became confused with each other, and people no longer drew any distinction between them, instead regarding each as the other and vice versa. See Cysat’s testimony. The fraternity of the living was thus cultish in nature, and its members, as much as we can deduce from the traditions examined, were a kind of elect who possessed the gift of being able to divide into Doubles, which allowed them, among other things, to foresee death and to move quite quickly, like the wind. This company, more or less Christianized over the course of its historical evolution, lost its ties to Dumézil’s third function and became purely funerary in nature. It took responsibility for burying the dead it sought. Here, elements are far from clear, because, according to Vincente Risco’s investigation, the burial seemed virtual. The brotherhood did not abduct the true corpse, but instead it took its Double.”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“The implicit reference in Germany as well as Spain to the Double speaks in favor of ecstatic phenomena and makes it possible to draw up this kind of outline: a sleeper emitted his Double, which joined with a procession of the dead and gained knowledge of his imminent death. On waking, he believed that he had really seen this procession and accredits its passage as such.”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“The dead are never impotent or powerless. They continue to meddle in human affairs and they remain a force with which to be reckoned. They customarily appear on certain dates when communication is established between this world and the next, when they have a decisive value in our lives.”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“The importance of fertility and abundance springs from two other themes formerly associated with the Wild Hunt:41 that of the night feast, about which we have already talked a great deal, and that of the resuscitated bull. During the cultic meals of these spirits, a bull was killed and eaten, then his hide was placed back over its correctly arranged bones, and the troop leader struck it with her wand, restoring the animal to life. Shamanic in origin, this rite is greatly attested in alpine legends outside those concerning the Wild Hunt. Another recurring motif reflects a third function context: that concerning the neat and tidy house and prohibitions on working. Here, the dead appear in the guise of the guarantors of a certain kind of order over which they keep watch. They never hesitate to reward or punish.”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“As long as seeds remain buried, they also fall under the jurisdiction of the dead. The Earth Mother, or Great Goddess of Fertility governs the fate of seeds and that of the dead in the same way.”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“In addition to its bond with the departed, the horse also is connected to fertility. We see that several blades of wheat were left for Odin’s horse to insure a good harvest the following year. We can also note that throughout the entire Germanic area, men offered sacrifices or offerings to horses. Alfred Eskeröd provides an excellent glimpse of this.34 It would be helpful to have a study on the mythology of the horse, for it is an extremely rich subject.”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“We can see how difficult it is to attribute to a specific god the phenomena connected to the passage of a nightly host. We have in fact too many putative patrons: Odin, Thor, Freyr! We should note that a detail from the painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder titled Melancholy (1532)25 depicts a fantastic aerial ride in which appear a wild boar ridden by an emaciated naked woman who bears a spear, a ram mounted by a Landsknecht, and a cow that carries a naked man and woman. In addition, we can note P. N. Arbo, who painted a Wild Hunt (Asgaardsreien, 1872) led by a bearded king who brandishes a hammer, in other words the god Thor.”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“Among the animals cited as having a connection to the Wild Hunt, it is quite startling to find the pig, Freyr’s sacred animal (F III), but also a beast that plays a role in Celtic funerary gifts during the Hallstatt (1000–500 BCE) and the La Tene (500–300 BCE) eras. The pig is one of the most often cited ghost animals, and it appears most often around Christmas and during Advent, which is hardly surprising, for we know that the restless dead—sinners, suicides, the sacrilegious, the greedy, and the usurious—often appear in this form21 and that women who slew their children emerged in the shape of a sow accompanied by her piglets.”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“Nevertheless, Odin is a complex god who rebuts all simplistic definitions. He has appropriated to himself the attributes of the agrarian gods, the gods ruling fertility, and the gods of the dead, hence we can detect many overlaps. It is possible he belongs to the Wild Hunt, but it is impossible to say whether this has been the case since the beginning or if he entered this legend much later. In view of the texts and the most current research, we may be inclined to accept this second hypothesis.”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“Renward Cysat first mentioned the wind when he told of the hauntings of Pilatus Lake. There are other spirits too up in these high and wild Alps. Some of them can be seen and heard only at night, sometimes riding horses and sometimes taking the shapes of real people whom we know to be living. Sometimes, they come up the mountain and through the forest near Lake Pilatus, riding and racing with a full charge of horses in such a mass as if they were several hundred horses and with such a loud rushing and with such force that the whole mountain seems to be shaken by them. It sounds like an earthquake and as if many cannons were being fired at once. Sometimes, it roars around the dairy huts at night, making such a wind and such a shaking [und macht einen wind und zittern] that it feels as if it is going to collapse.8 Cysat a second time mentions Lake Pilatus, whose surroundings abound in “evil and diabolical spirits” that are so numerous that they fill the night with their awful cries (grusamen gschrey) “like a strong squall (ouch glychsam alls jn einer starcken windsbrut), although the weather in the valley is beautifully still and clear.”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“In the Atlas of Swiss Ethnology, Elisabeth Liebl provides a synthesis of the relationships between the Wild Hunt and the weather.2 The passage of souls in perdition heralded bad weather. The apparition of the Türschtegjeg was accompanied by the roar of thunder and bolts of lightning, and when a strong autumn gale blows or a heavy winter storm rages, people in Switzerland still say “the Türscht is on the hunt.” People also say “it is as if the Türscht was hunting.”3 In the Thun region, the passage of the riders of the Furious Army is accompanied by rumblings. When the Waldhooli blows his horn, the weather is going to turn foul. On stormy nights, the grand duke (der wilde Geissler) leads the Wild Hunt.”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“This would not be the first time that the name for an important festival was anthropomorphized—for example, the Befana is the personification of Epiphany and Perchta personifies Christmas.”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“We should note, however, that St. Martin’s Day marks the end of the old fiscal year and the beginning of the new one, as well as the beginning of winter. St. Bartholomew’s Day performs the same offices for autumn, and St. John’s Day is the Christian reinterpretation of the Janus bifrons, which, in antiquity, marked a pivotal point in the year. It so happens that a full set of rites take place on dates considered to be the ending and beginning of the year: purifications; purgings; removal of demons; expulsion of evil; the extinguishing and relighting of fires”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“We can bring the appearance of the Wild Hunt down to three major time periods: winter—the duration of which varies depending on the latitudes and era of the narratives, Holy Week, and summer.1 The dates in winter are staggered from 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.”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“In Lithuania, the autumn festivals (Ilges) that correspond almost exactly to All Saints’ Day, last for ten days, three of which were dedicated entirely to 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.”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“There are a number of dates for other times of the year, among which we have: Easter, Pentecost, Walpurgis Night (April 30–May 1) St. John’s Day (June 24), St. Peter’s Day (June 29), and St. Bartholomew’s Day (August 24). Some of this troop’s movements occur cyclically. It is said that the Wild Hunt appears during the meatless times of the Ember Days (first week of Lent, the week of Pentecost, third week of September, Advent),6 or that it returns every seven years.”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“It so happens that the Dísir were the object of a form of worship in which food offering played a large role and took place in ancient times at the beginning of winter, which places these women in the same sphere as the Matronae and Dame Abundia, Satia, and Percht to whom meals were offered at certain times of the year. Furthermore, the Dísir are regarded as the dead (Atlamál, strophe 28), or the souls of deceased women, a belief that is the foundation for their comparison to “the tutelary Dísir of the countryside,” the Norse landdísir.”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“We note its importance, because it creates a bridge between the Wild Hunt and the Dísir, female deities similar to the Valkyries, who are sometimes called “Odin’s Dísir,” the Norns (the Germanic Parcae), and the fylgjur, the tutelary spirits of men. According to Ström, Guro is “a Dís who has been demonized and debased.”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“Although akin to them in many ways, Norse traditions are distinct from those of their Germanic neighbors. The Norse claimed that a woman called Guro Rysserova (Gudrun Horsetail) led the Oskoreia, which matches what is said about Percht in southern Germany. Sometimes Guro was accompanied by Sigurd Svein, Sigurd the Young, whom everyone knows as Siegfried, hero of the Nibelungenlied, numerous poems in the Edda, and the Saga of the Völsungs.”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“What clearly stands out: in all cases, the appearance of this host is linked to fertility rites, because the Christmas season is the time of omens, and the twelve days foreshadow what the twelve months of the year will be like.”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“Depending on the province, we may be dealing with spirits such as the Gulao or the Jula-gjeido or with men that rode with Oskoreia on these nights, which cannot help but bring to mind the Friulian Benandanti and the werewolves of the Baltic—a fraternity of men who work for the power of good”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“The northern countries, Norway in particular, offer a theme that seems to have come directly from the night hosts we have been examining. Here the Wild Hunt is known as Oskoreia, the Terrifying Ride.1 This host is a troop of masked men or spirits*74 that ride horses (ridende julevetter) between Christmas and Epiphany or Santa Lucia Day,†75 hence another name for the Wild Hunt: Lussiferdi. In 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).”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“The aim of the rituals that fall on the dates mentioned is therefore the expulsion of the harmful dead, who were perceived as demons, and to propitiate the other departed souls so that they contribute to the well-being of all over the course of the year that is just beginning. The superimposition of the Roman feasts of the dead—Dies Parentales, Caristia et Cara cognation (February), the feasts of the mother goddesses (Matronalia; March)—transformed into fairies, and masquerades is therefore not illogical.”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“Though the Roman New Year’s Day celebration in January was also that of the Lares, in Germany it was that of the dead, but we should not overlook the fact that the Lares—domestic spirits—are the good dead who have gained tutelary status. The Kalendae Ianuariae is therefore also a form of worship of the dead—at this time, a table of souls was set for the dead, who were given food offerings, a ritual also celebrated by the ancient Scandinavians. In France and the Germanic countries this setting took the form of the fairy feast, the table set for Dame Abundia, Percht, or the Parcae.”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“In his study of the relationship among the dawn, fairies, and Fortune, J. H. Grisward10 has shown that Morgue, Arsile, and Maglore, who emerge in Adam de la Halle’s Jeu de la feuillée, and Fortune function as the two faces of fate: the first three reserve their gifts for those they have chosen, and the latter has been, since birth, blind, deaf, and dumb (verses 771ff.). They are inclined to favor those who honor them, which implies a rite. This rite happens to take place on the spring or autumn equinox, dates on which the Wild Hunt also appeared. We can accept that the rapproachment we have noted did take place, because the apparition of the Mesnie Hellequin and that of fairies that visit homes falls into the jurisdiction of the same liturgy, is based on the same belief, and shares a temporal kinship: all the dates denote a turning point and refer back to the notion of beginning.”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“Fortune is only one of the shapes adopted by the Good Woman called Abundia, Satia, Bensozia, or Percht. We therefore find in France the exact same shift of the legend: these hosts of women and the Mesnie Hellequin are brought together and made one.”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“We should note, though, that the alpine regions preserved the tone of medieval beliefs better than anywhere else. The Swiss occupy a choice place here through the wealth of their accounts of what is practically unknown in France and elsewhere in Europe.”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead

“for as soon as Doctor Martin Luther began writing against indulgences, idolatrous Masses, and his attack on the splendid hierarchy of the Roman church, all these ghosts and rapping spirits retreated and came to an end.”49 Of course, Trauch was himself mistaken on this point: Luther did believe in these manifestations, as shown in his Table Talk!”
― Claude Lecouteux, Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead