Also called Åsgårdsreia, the Wild Hunt, Jolareia, Odens jakt.
The tale
In Norway the oskoreia is a band of the restless dead, often those who died violently or unshriven, who ride through the air at Yuletide with great noise. If they stopped at a farm, they might ride the horses to exhaustion or carry someone off, and fights might break out where their ale was set. Elsewhere in Scandinavia and Germany the Wild Hunt was led by Odin or other figures. Nineteenth-century scholars like Jacob Grimm linked it closely to Odin.
When they are met
- the Yule season, especially nights around Christmas
- stormy winter nights
Staying on their good side
- folk tradition: ale left out for the riders and marks on doors to keep them passing
- staying indoors on stormy midwinter nights
Honouring them, or keeping safe
- On a stormy Yule night, stay in, light a candle and remember the dead.
- Old custom said to throw yourself face down if the ride passed over you; the lesson is to shelter from winter storms.
What their tales teach
- winter storm lore
- honouring the dead at Yule
- respect for the season
Symbols
- riders in a storm
- black horses
- a saddle left on a sweating horse
- crosses of tar on the door
Some scholars accept the Odin link; others see the Wild Hunt as a later, more varied tradition.
Sources
- Kvideland and Sehmsdorf, Scandinavian Folk Belief and Legend
- Jacob Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie (Teutonic Mythology)
- Simek, Dictionary of Northern Mythology
More Norse folklore
- Huldra The hidden woman of the forest
- Nisse The little old man of the farm
- Draugr The restless dead of the sagas
- Trolls The old dwellers in mountain and stone
- Valkyries The choosers of the slain
- Fossegrim The fiddler beneath the waterfall
- Nøkken The fiddler in the still water
- Mara The spirit who rides sleepers