Herne the Hunter

In English folklore, Herne the Hunter is a ghost associated with Windsor Forest and Great Park in the English county of Berkshire. His appearance is notable in the fact that he has antlers upon his head.

The first literary mention of Herne is in William Shakespeare's play, The Merry Wives of Windsor, though there are several theories attempting to place the origins of Herne as predating any evidence for him by connecting his appearance to pagan deities or ancient archetypes.

Herne has appeared in various books, TV series and other media since his first mention by Shakespeare.

Contents

The legend

For such an iconic figure, there is surprisingly little written evidence for Herne the Hunter before the 1840s.

Shakespeare as the earliest source merely describes Herne the Hunter as “a spirit” and “sometime a keeper … in Windsor forest” who is seen to “walk round about an oak, with great ragg’d horns” at midnight during winter-time.

Two hundred years later in 1792 Samuel Ireland slightly expands on Shakespeare as follows: “The story of this Herne, who was keeper in the forest in the time of Elizabeth, runs thus: - That having committed some great offence, for which he feared to lose his situation and fall into disgrace, he was induced to hang himself on this tree.”

William Ainsworth’s romantic novel Windsor Castle (novel) which began serialisation in 1842 contains a fictionalised account of the origins of Herne the Hunter set during the reign of Richard II. This fabrication was popular with the Victorians, and has come down to the present day as being the legend.

The ghost

The earliest written account of Herne comes from Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor in 1597:

Sometime a keeper here in Windsor Forest,
Doth all the winter-time, at still midnight,
Walk round about an oak, with great ragg'd horns;
And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle,
And makes milch-kine yield blood, and shakes a chain
In a most hideous and dreadful manner.
You have heard of such a spirit, and well you know
The superstitious idle-headed eld
Receiv'd, and did deliver to our age,
This tale of Herne the Hunter for a truth.
— William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor

This records several aspects of Herne's ghost which is said to have haunted Windsor Forest (covering all of East Berkshire and parts of south Buckinghamshire, northeast Hampshire and northwest Surrey) and specifically the Great Park ever since his death. Further details have entered local folklore from reported sightings , such as those in the 1920s.[1] He appears antlered, sometimes beneath the tree on which he was hanged, known as "Herne's Oak", but more often riding his horse, accompanied by other wild huntsmen and the captured souls of those he has encountered on his journey. He is thus a phantom of ill omen, particularly for the country and, specifically, the Royal Family. He has a phosphorescent glow and is accompanied by demon hounds, a horned owl and other creatures of the forest.

Herne's Oak

The supposed location of Herne's Oak was, for many years, a matter of local speculation and controversy. Some Ordnance Survey maps show Herne's Oak a little to the north of Frogmore House in the Home Park (adjoining Windsor Great Park). This is generally believed to be the correct site from which the oak of Shakespeare's time was felled in 1796.

In 1838, Edward Jesse claimed that a different tree in the avenue was the real Herne's Oak, and this gained in popularity especially with Queen Victoria. This tree was blown down on 31st August 1863, and Queen Victoria had another tree planted on the same site. The Queen's tree was removed in 1906 when the avenue was replanted.

The legend of the oak was looked into by her son, King Edward VII and a new oak planted on the site of the tree that was felled in 1796.

Possible origins

Various theories have been proposed to account for the origin of the character, none of which has been proved conclusive, and the source for many of the tales told of Herne remain unknown.

In his 1929 book The History of the Devil - The Horned God of the West Herne R. Lowe Thompson suggests that "Herne" as well as other Wild Huntsmen in European folklore all derive from the same ancient source, citing that "Herne" may be a cognate of the name of Gaulish deity Cernunnos in the same way that the English "horn" is a cognate of the Latin "cornu" (see Grimm's Law for more details on this linguistic feature).[2]

Some neo-pagans such as Wiccans consider Herne to be derived from the Celtic God Cernunnos (which they connect to the Greco-Roman god Pan).[3] However Herne is a very localized figure not found outside Berkshire and the regions of the surrounding counties into which Windsor Forest once spread. Conversely, evidence of belief in Cernunnos has been recovered only in the region near what is now Paris and not in Britain at all.[4]

In the Early Middle Ages, Windsor Forest was settled by heathen Angles who worshiped their own pantheon of gods, including Woden, who was depicted as horned,[5][6] rode across the night sky with his own Wild Hunt and hanged himself on an ash tree in order to learn the runic alphabet. The name Herne is not unlikely to be derived from the name Herian [7] a name used for Woden as leader of the slain (Old Norse "Einherjar") and of the Wild Hunt.[8][9][10][11] Another Wild Hunt-associated folkloric figure, King Herla, started as the Old English Herla cyning, a figure that is usually said to be Woden, but was later re-imagined by Walter Map in literature as a Brythonic king (see Herla article) who after traveling to an Otherworld returns to find his lands inhabited by Englishmen, has a name that has also been connected to Herian and thus also possibly to Herne.[12]

It is possible that the name Herne may originate from the Old English hyrne or herne, the O.E. for 'horn' or 'corner' [13][14][15]

Another view is that Herne is supposed to be the ghost of Richard Horne, a yeoman during the reign of Henry VIII who was caught poaching in the wood.[16] The earliest edition of The Merry Wives of Windsor spells the name "Horne".[17]

Post-Shakespearean adaptations

Music

Literature

Other references

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ R. Lowe Thompson, The History of the Devil 1929 p. 134
  2. ^ The History of the Devil by R. Lowe Thompson, 1920, page. 133
  3. ^ 'Simple Wicca: A simple wisdom book' by Michele Morgan, Conari, 2000, ISBN 1573241997, 9781573241991as
  4. ^ Ronald Hutton, The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy, People of the Mist (chpt 5)
  5. ^ http://www.catshaman.com/s21edda2/09Eddagods2.htm
  6. ^ hesternic.tripod.com
  7. ^ Matthews, John. 'The Quest for the Green Man'. Published by Quest Books, 2001. ISBN 0835608255, 9780835608251. Page 116
  8. ^ Spence, Lewis. 'Hero Tales and Legends of the Rhine'. BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2007. ISBN 1434627551, 9781434627551. page 68
  9. ^ De Berard Mills. Bardeen, C.W.'The Tree of Mythology, Its Growth and Fruitage: Genesis of The Nursery Tale, Saws of Folk-lore, etc'. 1889
  10. ^ De Vries, Eric. 'Hedge-Rider: Witches and the Underworld'. Pendraig Publishing, 2008. ISBN 0979616875, 9780979616877
  11. ^ Greenwood, Susan.' The Nature of Magic: An Anthropology of Consciousness'. Berg Publishers, 2005. ISBN 1845200950, 9781845200954. Page 120
  12. ^ http://www.orkneyjar.com/tradition/hunt.htm
  13. ^ Shipley, Joseph Twadell. 'Dictionary of Early English'. Philosophical Library, 1955. Page 330.
  14. ^ http://rodneymackay.com/writing/pdf%20files/worldmyth.pdf
  15. ^ Bosworth, Joseph.'A Dictionary of the Anglo-Saxon Language, Containing the Accentuation--the Grammatical Inflections--the Irregular Words Referred to Their Themes--the Parallel Terms, from the Other Gothic Languages--the Meaning of the Anglo-Saxon in English and Latin--and Copious English and Latin Indexes ...' Published by Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, 1838. Page 189
  16. ^ Hedley, Windsor Castle, 93.
  17. ^ Jeffrey Theis, The "ill kill'd" Deer: Poaching and Social Order in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Texas Studies in Literature and Language 43.1 (2001) 46-73.
  18. ^ http://www.kingpenda.com/herne

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