Herne the Hunter

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Herne with his steed, hounds and owl, observed by the Duke of Richmond and the Earl of Surrey, in Harrison Ainsworth's Windsor Castle, illustrated by George Cruikshank, c.1843.

In English folklore, Herne the Hunter is an equestrian 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 he has appeared in various other books, TV series and other media since.

There are several theories attempting to place the origins of Herne as predating any evidence for him by connecting his appearance to pagan deities; one theory proposes that he is based upon the Anglo-Saxon god Woden, whilst another proposes than he is based upon the Celtic god Cernunnos.

Contents

[edit] The legend

Herne is said to have been a huntsman in the employ of King Richard II (reigned 1377-1399) in and around Windsor Forest. He saved the King's life when he was attacked by a cornered white hart, but was mortally wounded himself in the process. A local wizard brought him back to health using his magical powers, which entailed tying the dead animal's antlers on Herne's head. In return, however, Herne had to give up his hunting skills. The other king's huntsmen framed him as a thief. As a result he lost the favour of the king. He was found the next day, hanging dead from a lone oak tree. That same oak tree is in the Home Park at Windsor Castle.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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. Queen Victoria, unfortunately, had a replacement planted on a different site. This new tree fell in a gale in 1863 when carved mementoes were made from the timber, including a cabinet for the Queen. The bungle was, however, corrected by her son, King Edward VII, who planted the current Herne's Oak in 1906.[2]

[edit] Possible origins

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

[edit] Celtic

In his 1929 book The History of the Devil - The Horned God of the West Herne R. Lowe suggests that "Herne" could be the Old English version or pronunciation of the Celtic deity Cernunnos - considering that -os is usually dropped over time, plus, following the Grimms Law rules, the C becomes H (possibly from Indo-European *ḱer-, 'horn').[citation needed]

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 Paris and not in Britain at all. [3].

[edit] Anglo-Saxon

In the Dark Ages, Windsor Forest was settled by heathen Angles who worshipped their own pantheon of gods, including Woden, who was depicted as horned [4] [5], 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 [6] a name used for Woden as leader of the slain (Old Norse "Einherjar") and of the Wild Hunt. 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 as a Brythonic king (see Herla article), has a name that has also been connected to Herian and thus also possibly to Herne[7].

It is possible that the name Herne may originate from the Old English hyrne or herne, the O.E. for 'horn' or 'corner' [8] [9] [10]

[edit] Tudor

Another view is that Herne is connected to one Richard Horne, a yeoman during the reign of Henry VIII who was caught poaching in the wood. [11]

[edit] Post-Shakespearean adaptations

  • William Harrison Ainsworth's Victorian romance of Windsor Castle featured Herne and popularised him.
  • Arrigo Boito, composing a libretto for Verdi's opera Falstaff by improvising upon materials in Merry Wives and Henry IV, built the moonlit last act set in Windsor Great Park around a prank revenge played upon the amorous Falstaff by masqueraders disguised as spirits and the spectral "Black Huntsman," in whom we recognize Herne the Hunter. Carlo Prospers Defranceschi wrote a similar libretto for composer Antonio Salieri that specifically mentions Herne.
  • 'The Legend of Herne the Hunter' was part of Sir Arthur Sullivan's ballet Victoria and Merrie England of 1897, which portrayed various scenes from British folklore and history.
  • Herne was portrayed as a pagan priest and embodied spirit of the woods in the British television series Robin of Sherwood.
  • Herne the Hunter appears in Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising sequence where he plays a key part in the end of the book by the same name and the series' ending Silver on the Tree.
  • Herne the Hunted is a parody of Herne the Hunter in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. He is a small god and the patron of those animals destined to end up as a "brief, crunchy squeak."
  • Herne the Hunter is a key figure in Ruth Nichols' children's novel The Marrow of the World. His character has no supernatural attributes.
  • English Poet Laureate John Masefield included Herne the Hunter as a benevolent 'spirit of the woodlands' in his children's book The Box of Delights.
  • Herne made an appearance in the Bitterbynde trilogy by Cecilia Dart-Thornton. In these books Herne is portrayed as a powerful "unseelie wight" by the name of Huon who leads his hellhounds in search of the main protagonist.
  • Herne the Hunter appears as a supporting character in Simon Green's Nightside series.
  • Herne the Hunter is one of the main antagonists in C. E. Murphy's Urban Shaman.
  • Herne the Hunter is Monster in My Pocket #59.
  • Herne the Hunter features in the lyrics of the song English Fire by Cradle of Filth on their album Nymphetamine.
  • Herne was the Deer God in the book Fire Bringer, by David Clement-Davies
  • Herne is a deer-headed guide in Ursula Vernon's webcomic Digger.
  • Herne is a forest spirit in issue #26 of the Green Arrow comic book series.
  • In the The Elder Scrolls series, the Daedric Prince Hircine is very similar to Herne, as a deer-headed hunter spirit. His servants are called Hernes.
  • In the 2004 console game The Bard's Tale, Herne is one of the three guardians of the towers.
  • On the 2008 Album, "Blessings" by S.J. Tucker, a song is titled "Hymn To Herne." He is presented as a hunter, similar to Cernunnos if not entirely interchangeable with him.

[edit] References

  • Fitch, Eric (1994). In Search of Herne the Hunter. Capall Bann Publishing. ISBN 978-1898307235.
  • Petry, Michael John (1972). Herne the Hunter: A Berkshire Legend. William Smith (Booksellers) Ltd. ISBN 978-0950021881.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ R. Lowe Thompson, The History of the Devil 1929 p. 134
  2. ^ Petry, 1972.
  3. ^ Ronald Hutton, The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy, People of the Mist (chpt 5)
  4. ^ http://www.catshaman.com/s21edda2/09Eddagods2.htm
  5. ^ hesternic.tripod.com
  6. ^ The Quest for the Green Man By John Matthews, Published by Quest Books, 2001 ISBN 0835608255, 9780835608251, page 116
  7. ^ http://www.orkneyjar.com/tradition/hunt.htm
  8. ^ Dictionary of Early English, By Joseph Twadell Shipley, Published by Philosophical Library, 1955, page 330.
  9. ^ http://rodneymackay.com/writing/pdf%20files/worldmyth.pdf
  10. ^ 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 ... By Joseph Bosworth, Published by Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, 1838, Page 189
  11. ^ Hedley, Windsor Castle, 93.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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