Usuari:Redtrevius/Cacera infernal

La Caçera infernal: Asgårdsreien (1872) de Peter Nicolai Arbo.

La Cacera infernal o Cacera salvatge és un mite europeu que implica un grup sobrenatural de caçadors en una persecució salvatge. Els caçadors poden elfs, fades o morts, i el líder de la caçera és sovint una figura associada amb Odin (o altres deformacions d'el mateix déu, com el Wuodan alemannic del Wuotis Heer de Suïssa Central, Suàbia, etc.). El líder també pot ser encarnat per algun personatge de rellevància històrica, com Teodoric el Gran, Valdemar Atterdag, el Comte Arnau, Herodes, Caïm, Gabriel, el Diable, o un esperit o ànima perduda qualsevol, tant home com dona.

Es creia que veure la Cacera infernal presagiava agun tipus de catàtrofe, com la guerra o la pesta o, en el millor dels casos, la mort del qui ho presenciava. Les persones es topaven amb la Cacera també podien ser segrestades i conduïdes a l'inframón o al regne de les fades. En alguns casos, també es creia que les ànimes de les persones podien ser robades durant el seu son per unir-se a la cavalcada.

El concepte va ser desenvolupat a partir de la mitologia comparada per Jacob Grimm al Deutsche Mythologie (1835). La va considerar una tradició pagana germànica, que havia sobreviscut al llarg dels temps, però es troben mites comparables a tota, Europa del Nord, Occidental i Central. Grimm va popularitzar el terme Wilde Jagd ("Cacera salvatge") per a descriure el fenomen.

Terminologia i evidències comparatives

Basat en l'aproximació comparativa de la mitologia alemanya, el fenomen sovint s'anomena Wilde Jagd ("cacera o persecució salvatge" en alemany) o Wilde Heer ("host salvatge"). A Alemanya, el líder de la caçera podia ser Wodan (o "Woden"), Knecht Ruprecht (cf. Krampus), Berchtold (o Berchta), i Holda (o "Holle").

A Anglaterra es coneixia com Herlaþing ("l'assemblea de Herla" en anglès antic), Woden's Hunt, Herod's Hunt o Cain's Hunt (Cacera d'Odin, herodes i Caïm respectivament). A Cornualla es coneixia com a "the Devil's Dandy Dogs ("els Gossos Dandy del Dimoni"), i al nord d'Anglaterra s'anomenava Gabriel's Hounds (Gossos de Gabriel). A Gal·les existeix un mite similra anomenat Cŵn Annwn, que en gal·lès vol dir Gossos d' Annwn".

A Noruega, la Cacera infernal s'anomenava Oskoreia o Asgårdsreia (en noruec: "Genets sorollosos" o "la Cavalcada d'Asgard"). A Suècia es coneix com Odens jakt o Vilda jakten ("Cacera d'Odin" o "Cacera salvatge").

A França, es coneix com Mesnée d'Hellequin ("casa de Hellequin" en francès antic). En Europa Central eslava De l'oest és sabut tan divoký hon o štvaní (Czech: "salvatge empaita", "baiting"), Dziki Gon o Dziki Łów (polonès), i Divja Jaga (Slovene: "el partit de caça salvatge" o "salvatge empaitar"). Altres variacions d'el mateix folk el mite és Caccia Morta (Mort empaitar) o Caccia selvaggia (salvatge empaitar) dins Itàlia; Estantiga (de Hoste Antiga, gallec: "l'exèrcit vell"), Hostia, Compaña i Santa Compaña ("tropa, empresa") dins Galícia; Güestia dins Astúries; Hueste de Ánimas ("tropa de fantasmes") dins León; i Hueste de Guerra ("empresa de guerra") o Cortejo de Gente de Muerte ("mortífer retinue") dins Extremadura.

n France, it was known as Mesnée d'Hellequin (Old North French: "household of Hellequin"). In West Slavic Central Europe it is known as divoký hon or štvaní (Czech: "wild hunt", "baiting"), Dziki Gon or Dziki Łów (Polish), and Divja Jaga (Slovene: "the wild hunting party" or "wild hunt"). Other variations of the same folk myth are Caccia Morta (Dead hunt) or Caccia selvaggia (wild hunt) in Italy; Estantiga (from Hoste Antiga, Galician: "the old army"), Hostia, Compaña and Santa Compaña ("troop, company") in Galicia; Güestia in Asturias; Hueste de Ánimas ("troop of ghosts") in León; and Hueste de Guerra ("war company") or Cortejo de Gente de Muerte ("deadly retinue") in Extremadura.

"Cacera salvatge de Wodan" (1882) per Friedrich Wilhelm Heine.

Història

The concept of the Wild Hunt was first documented by the German folklorist Jacob Grimm, who first published it in his 1835 book Deutsche Mythologie. It was in this work that he popularised the term Wilde Jagd ("Wild Hunt") for the phenomenon. Grimm's methodological approach was rooted in the idea – common in nineteenth-century Europe – that modern folklore represented a fossilized survival of the beliefs of the distant past. In developing his idea of the Wild Hunt, he mixed together recent folkloric sources with textual evidence dating to the Medieval and Early Modern periods. This approach came to be criticized within the field of folkloristics during the 20th century, as more emphasis was placed on the "dynamic and evolving nature of folklore".

Grimm interpreted the Wild Hunt phenomenon as having pre-Christian origins, arguing that the male figure who appeared in it was a survival of folk beliefs about the god Wodan, who had "lost his sociable character, his near familiar features, and assumed the aspect of a dark and dreadful power... a spectre and a devil." Grimm believed that this male figure was sometimes replaced by a female counterpart, whom he referred to as Holda and Berchta. In his words, "not only Wuotan and other gods, but heathen goddesses too, may head the furious host: the wild hunter passes into the wood-wife, Wôden into frau Gaude." He added his opinion that this female figure was Woden's wife.

Discussing martial elements of the Wild Hunt, Grimm commented that "it marches as an army, it portends the outbreak of war." He added that a number of figures that had been recorded as leading the hunt, such as "Wuotan, Huckelbernd, Berholt, bestriding their white war-horse, armed and spurred, appear still as supreme directors of the war for which they, so to speak, give licence to mankind."

Grimm believed that in pre-Christian Europe, the hunt, led by a god and a goddess, either visited "the land at some holy tide, bringing welfare and blessing, accepting gifts and offerings of the people" or they alternately float "unseen through the air, perceptible in cloudy shapes, in the roar and howl of the winds, carrying on war, hunting or the game of ninepins, the chief employments of ancient heroes: an array which, less tied down to a definite time, explains more the natural phenomenon." He believed that under the influence of Christianisation, the story was converted from being that of a "solemn march of gods" to being "a pack of horrid spectres, dashed with dark and devilish ingredients".

Hans Peter Duerr (1985) noted that for modern readers, it "is generally difficult to decide, on the basis of the sources, whether what is involved in the reports about the appearance of the Wild Hunt is merely a demonic interpretation of natural phenomenon, or whether we are dealing with a description of ritual processions of humans changed into demons." Historian Ronald Hutton noted that there was "a powerful and well-established international scholarly tradition" which argued that the Medieval Wild Hunt legends were an influence on the development of the Early Modern ideas of the Witches' Sabbath. Hutton nevertheless believed that this approach could be "fundamentally challenged".

Variacions regionals

Gran Bretanya

In England, the historical figures St. Guthlac (683–714) and Hereward the Wake (died ca. 1070) were reported to have participated in the Wild Hunt; and, in the Peterborough Chronicle, there is an account of the Wild Hunt's appearance at night, beginning with the appointment of a disastrous abbot for the monastery, Henry d'Angely, in 1127:

Reliable witnesses were said to have given the number of huntsmen as twenty or thirty, and it is said, in effect, that this went on for nine weeks, ending at Easter. Orderic Vitalis (1075–c. 1142), an English monk cloistered at St Evroul-en-Ouche, in Normandy, reported a similar cavalcade seen in January 1091, which he said were "Herlechin's troop" (familia Herlechini; cf. Harlequin).

While these earlier reports of Wild Hunts were recorded by clerics and portrayed as diabolic, in late medieval romances, such as Sir Orfeo, the hunters are rather from a faery otherworld, where the Wild Hunt was the hosting of the fairies; its leaders also varied, but they included Gwydion, Gwynn ap Nudd, King Arthur, Nuada, King Herla, Woden, the Devil and Herne the Hunter. Many legends are told of their origins, as in that of "Dando and his dogs" or "the dandy dogs": Dando, wanting a drink but having exhausted what his huntsmen carried, declared he would go to hell for it. A stranger came and offered a drink, only to steal Dando's game and then Dando himself, with his dogs giving chase. The sight was long claimed to have been seen in the area. Another legend recounted how King Herla, having visited the Fairy King, was warned not to step down from his horse until the greyhound he carried jumped down; he found that three centuries had passed during his visit, and those of his men who dismounted crumbled to dust; he and his men are still riding, because the greyhound has yet to jump down.

The myth of the Wild Hunt has through the ages been modified to accommodate other gods and folk heroes, among them King Arthur and, more recently, in a Dartmoor folk legend, Sir Francis Drake. At Cadbury Castle in Somerset an old lane near the castle was called King Arthur's Lane and even in the 19th century the idea survived that on wild winter nights the king and his hounds could be heard rushing along it.

Bosc de Wistman dins Devon, Anglaterra.

In certain parts of Britain, the hunt is said to be that of hell-hounds chasing sinners or the unbaptised. In Devon these are known as Yeth (Heath) or Wisht Hounds, in Cornwall Dando and his Dogs or the Devil and his Dandy Dogs, in Wales the Cwn Annwn, the Hounds of Hell, and in Somerset as Gabriel Ratchets or Retchets (dogs). In Devon the hunt is particularly associated with Wistman's Wood.

Alemanya

An abundance of different tales of the Wild Hunt are recorded in Germany. In most tales, the identity of the hunter is not made clear, in others, it is:

• a mythological figure named Waul, Waur, Waurke, Wod, Wode, Wotk, or Wuid, who is thought to be derived from the ancient Germanic god of the wind and the dead, Wodan;
• a mythological figure named Frie, Fuik, Fu, Holda or Holle, who is thought to be derived from the Germanic goddess Freya or Frigg;
• an undead noble, most often called Count Hackelberg or Count Ebernburg, who is cursed to hunt eternally because of misbehaviour during his lifetime, and in some versions died from injuries of a slain boar's tusk.

Sometimes, the tales associate the hunter with a dragon or the devil. The hunter is most often riding a horse, seldom a horse-drawn carriage, and usually has several hounds in his company. If the prey is mentioned, it is most often a young woman, either guilty or innocent. The majority of the tales deal with some person encountering the Wild Hunt. If this person stands up against the hunters, he will be punished. If he helps the hunt, he will be awarded money, gold or, most often, a leg of a slain animal or human, which is often cursed in a way that makes it impossible to be rid of it. In this case, the person has to find a priest or magician able to ban it, or trick the Wild Hunt into taking the leg back by asking for salt, which the hunt can not deliver. In many versions, a person staying right in the middle of the road during the encounter is safe.

Escandinàvia

In Scandinavia, Odin's hunt was heard but rarely seen, and a typical trait is that one of Odin's dogs was barking louder and a second one fainter. Beside one or two shots, these barks were the only sounds that were clearly identified. When Odin's hunt was heard, it meant changing weather in many regions, but it could also mean war and unrest. According to some reports, the forest turned silent and only a whining sound and dog barks could be heard.

In western Sweden and sometimes in the east as well, it has been said that Odin was a nobleman or even a king who had hunted during the Sundays and therefore was doomed to hunt down and kill supernatural beings until the end of time. According to certain accounts, Odin does not ride, but travels in a wheeled vehicle, specifically a one-wheeled cart.

In parts of Småland, it appears that people believed that Odin hunted with large birds when the dogs got tired. When it was needed, he could transform a bevy of sparrows into an armed host.

If houses were built on former roads, they could be burnt down, because Odin did not change his plans if he had formerly travelled on a road there. Not even charcoal kilns could be built on disused roads, because if Odin was hunting the kiln would be ablaze.

One tradition maintains that Odin did not travel further up than an ox wears his yoke, so if Odin was hunting, it was safest to throw oneself onto the ground in order to avoid being hit. In Älghult in Småland, it was safest to carry a piece of bread and a piece of steel when going to church and back during Yule. The reason was that if one met the rider with the broad-rimmed hat, one should throw the piece of steel in front of oneself, but if one met his dogs first, one should throw the pieces of bread instead.

Líder de la Cacera infernal

• Bretanya: el Rei Artús.
• Catalunya: el Comte Arnau o un espectre desconegut.
• Anglaterra: Woden; Herla; Edric el Salvatge; el Rei Artús o Lord Francis Drake, entre d'altres.
• Alemanya: Wodan, Berchtold, Teodoric el Gran, Holda, Perchta o Hans von Hackelberg (entre d'altres).
• Guernsey: Heròdies
• Irlanda: Fionn mac Cumhaill i els Fianna o Manannán mac Lir.
• Llombardia: Teodoric el Gran, la Dona del Zöch ("la Dona del Joc/Caça" en llombard).
• Països Baixos: Wodan, Berend van Galen, el Bisbe de Münster i molts d'altres.
• Escandinàvia: Odin; Valdemar Atterdag; la bruixa Guro Rysserova (a Dinamarca) i Sigurdsveinen (a Noruega).
• Gal·les: Arawn o Gwyn ap Nudd, el déu gal·lès de l'Inframón.

Referències culturals modernes

The Wild Hunt is featured in Karl Maria von Weber's 1821 opera Der Freischütz, in one of Franz Liszt's Transcendental Études of 1837 and in Arnold Schönberg's oratorio Gurre-Lieder of 1911. A short story from 1861 by Spanish writer Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer entitled "El monte de las ánimas" features a version of the Wild Hunt that appears on Halloween, and William Butler Yeats evoked the Wild Hunt in his 1893 poem "The Hosting of the Sidhe". The Wild Hunt is also referenced in Cormac McCarthy's novel Suttree of 1979.

The subject of Stan Jones' American country song "Ghost Riders in the Sky" of 1948, which tells of cowboys chasing the Devil's cattle through the night sky, resembles the European myth. Swedish folk musician The Tallest Man on Earth released an album in 2010 entitled The Wild Hunt, and in 2013 the black metal band Watain, also Swedish, released an album with the same title.

Since the 1960s, references to the Wild Hunt have become a popular trope in fantasy fiction. Relevant works include Alan Garner's The Moon of Gomrath of 1963, Uladzimir Karatkievich's King Stakh's Wild Hunt of 1964, Philip Pullman's children's novel Count Karlstein of 1982, Brian Bates' The Way of Wyrd of 1983, the Wild Cards anthology Dealer's Choice of 1992, Diana Gabaldon's The Scottish Prisoner of 2011 and numerous works by Peter Beagle, Cassandra Clare, Susan Cooper, Charles de Lint, Raymond E. Feist, Laurell K. Hamilton, Robert Jordan, Guy Gavriel Kay, Robin LaFevers, Penelope Lively, C. Robert Cargill, Andrzej Sapkowski, Michael Scott, Jim Butcher, and Mary Stewart. The Wild Hunt also features prominently in CD Projekt RED's 2015 role-playing video game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, based on the popular books by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. In film, The Wild Hunt is a Canadian horror drama of 2009.

Vegeu també

• Quatre genets de l'Apocalipsi.
• Valquíria
• Bokkenrijders

Bibliografia

• Jean-Claude Schmitt, Ghosts in the Middle Ages: The Living and the Dead in Medieval Society (1998), ISBN 0-226-73887-6 and ISBN 0-226-73888-4
• Kris Kershaw, "The One-Eyed God: Odin and the Indo-Germanic Mannerbunde", Journal of Indo-European Studies, (2001).
• Carl Lindahl, John McNamara, John Lindow (eds.) Medieval Folklore: A Guide to Myths, Legends, Tales, Beliefs, and Customs, Oxford University Press (2002), p. 432f. ISBN 0-19-514772-3
• Otto Höfler, Kultische Geheimbünde der Germanen, Frankfurt (1934).
• Ruben A. Koman, 'Dalfser Muggen'. – Bedum: Profiel. – With a summary in English, (2006).
• Margherita Lecco, Il Motivo della Mesnie Hellequin nella Letteratura Medievale, Alessandria (Italy), Edizioni dell'Orso, 2001