Gwyn ap Nudd and the Wild Hunt

Most people have heard about the Wild Hunt, it is the subject most talked at the month of October, a kind of spiritual happaning around the time of Samhain. In this cold season, the veil between this world and the world of the dead, reveals itself, and a tiny gap is opened and there is the oportunity to have interaction with the dead and other spirits, and with the gods.

Such as this time is the beginning of the hunting season for mortals, to store food for the coming of winter, it is also the time of the wild hunt which is associated with the behaviour and the needs of Men. From the other side of the world of the dead, spirits, ancestors, gods and animal-spirits come through, riding to find and hunt souls of those who are still traped in the mortal world, the souls of the brave, those worthy to ride at the side of the gods.

There is one leader of this entire "battalion", who is called Gwyn ap Nudd in Wales, and most people know this chief-hunter by that name, he plays the role of guardian in this entire process. For others, he is called Odin, the Norse god of Asgard and King of the Aesir gods, he rides with many spirits such as the ones i've written before, but also with his Valkyries, and the common animals that may be find in this wild hunt, are the ravens, swans, deer and dogs.

This spiritual happaning dates far back to the XII (12) century, around the years of 1100 C.E. and it is written is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

While the wild hunt occurred, the riders would cross the dark skies, and this could be heard by the villagers of many towns around Europe, and it was feared by all, because this signifies that certain death was imminent, they were searching not only for the dead souls, but also for the living whose time has come, for all those brave warriors, to whom the gods had chosen to make part of their riders and crossover to the world of the dead for great deeds.

Cernunnos, a famous god of the forests and wild animals of the Celtic mythology, is also seen by the ancient celts, to be the chief-hunter of these riders. In Europe whatever god the peoples of different countries had, this spiritual happaning was the same and always at this time of the year. In truth, it seems more likely, that all the gods and spirits of the European peoples, assemble for this wild hunt.

It is also belived, that evey dolmen, every sacred mound and other Neolithic buildings that are placed along the ley lines, are actualy the paths that this wild hunt is taken through, the Saxons used to call these ley lines, deada-waeg, or the paths of the dead.

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