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"we thought this would be easy but actually it might be the longest one we've done" is quickly becoming the catchphrase of this podcast

Wind's howling

Danteh

Here in the Austrian Alps the Wild Hunt (germ. Wilde Jagd, dialect Wüde Gjoad) still is a very important part of life depending on the region. The leader of it is Frau Perchta and again depending on the regions and valleys also Wotan (Odin). The hunt itself takes place during the "rough nights" (Rauhnächte). Where I am from those begin with the day of St. Thomas which is the "Thomasnacht" (21st of December) marking the opening of the gates to the "otherworld", the realm of the demons and damned. The first creature stepping into our world then is the demon creature "Thomasbock", a billy goat like demon feeding on fear that runs through all the valleys and even through houses. We don't hang the washing up, ecspecially not the white one, since it is said that the demon would run into it and your house and kin would have to deal with its evil spirit for the next year. Then, again in most communities, on the 25th of December, right after Christmas, Perchta and her army of demons (mostly lesser gods) and spirits of dead children (unbaptized, drowned or just evil) come forth and will ride through the skies, on the rivers and streams and it is said over the house roofs for twelve days. On the last few of those days and nights (Jan. 4th-6th) we dress up like demons and try to get rid of Perchta and her spirits by to pretending to be part of theirs. Since Perchta is a mixture from Frigg and different regional mostly (pre-)Celtic godesses, in Carinthia and Styria probably also Slavic ones, the demon figures varry between most villages. However Perchta herself is described the same way in all of Bavarian folklore. She is the godess of two faces and sides, a beautiful one and an evil witchlike one. She is the godess of all fertility, punishment, witches, certain birds and dark ponds. Good people will see her as a beautiful young lady dressed in white but evil people, liars and sinners she will show her ugly and evil side. Together with Wotan she also is a godess of the dead, mostly children. When dressing up we try to cover most of the creatures and demons people in the respective region say are part of the Wild Hunt. We for example have Frau Perchta, horned demons, witches, death (Boandlkrama - Bone Grocer), different animal demons (chicken, bull, ram, wild hog...) and several good ones. The good ones mainly are meant to bring fertility, dance and wear masks depending on the region.
Sorry for the long comment but maybe somebody is interested. Greetings from Western Austria!

The story of the woman on ember Friday  (around 1hr 52mins)  - the skeins she was boiling would have been skeins of wool and not skins as you suggested?   After spinning wool, the yarn is twisted into skeins that are then scalded in hot water to "fix" the wool and prevet it from shrinking after being turned into fabric.  Otherwise, all very very interesting.......

An old cowpoke went riding out one dark and windy day, upon a ridge he rested as he went along his way. When all at once a mighty herd of red-eyed cows he saw, A'plowin' through the ragged skies and up the cloudy draws....

I like you sir, have only heard about them from the Witcher, so that’s why I am here.

I"ve heard some Asian myths that have processions of spirits. Some Hong Kong skyscrapers are made with holes in them called Dragon Gates to allow such processions.

How wild?

Wild... How wild.

As a teen,  I once heard the wild hunt passing overhead on a cloudy autumn night. We were wondering if it was someone's pack of hunting dogs,  but as it got closer, it was clearly overhead.

Just as it passed directly over us, there was a break in the clouds,  that let us see what was up there.  

It was a skein of large water fowl. Some variation of goose.

skeins aren't skins, skeins are balls of yarn.

How wild

kinda wild

A quick correction, its been pointed out that the account we gave of Herodias does not correlate well with the account given in the gospels, it seems we mixed up a legend from a 12th century document called the Ysengrimus given by Claude Lecouteux with the actual Christian account. This is our bad for not using a primary source on this occasion and we will issue a full correction and explanation at the beginning of the next episode.

Got my coffee and my smoke. Time to settle in.

since my early childhood l had a painting above my bed. it was called die wilde jagd, by franz stuck. it was a digital print.
there were worlds which opened to me in these childhood dreams, l can tell you that.

I remember the first time I heard the term ‘the Wild Hunt’ was during the 1990’s when I was listening to black metal from Scandinavia.
One tale was of a series of villages being destroyed during winter. There is never any survivors. There are bloodied bodies everywhere, technically it’s a bloodbath. A passing person finds the remains, then follows the hoof prints from the culprits, only for the many hoof prints to suddenly vanish.
It is said to be a hunting party led by Odin, who’s horses run across the sky before landing and eradicating a town then returning to the sky.

I live just north of the Limes in Germany. Here there is also a connection to the old roman border (Teufelsmauer/Devil wall) and the "Wilde Jagd" (Wild Hunt).
It can only travel on it, and in any houses build on it they have to open a window and the oven door in the "Rauhnächte"(12 days between Christmas and Epiphany), so that the wild hunt can travel through without damaging everything