While in this connexion the meaner sort long cherished the thought of Wuotan, or conveniently stowed him away in a cognate verb; it was quite in the regular course of things that the more cultivated should from an early time put the devil in his place. 'Si bliesen unde gullen, vreisliche si hullen, sô daz diu helle wagete, alse der tuvel dâ jagete,' says Veldeck in En. 3239. Caesarius heisterb. 12, 20 tells of a vain woman, who had herself buried in fine new shoes, and whose soul was therefore hunted by the infernalis venator: 'ex remoto vox quasi venatoris terribiliter buccinantis, necnon et latratus canum venaticorum praecedentium audiuntur.' (16) 'der tiuwel hât ûz gesant sîn geswarme und sîn her,' Rol. 204, 6. 'der tiuvel und sîn her,' Renn. 2249. 2870. The people in Bavaria say that on Ash-Wednesday the devil chases the little wood-wife, Superst. I, 914b. With the devil is associated the figure of an enormous giant, who can stand for him as well as for Wuotan; and this opinion prevails in Switzerland. There the wild hunt is named dürsten-gejeg (see durs, þurs, p. 521): on summer nights you hear the dürst hunting on the Jura, cheering on the hounds with his hoho; heedless persons, that do not get out of the way, are ridden over. (17) Schm. 1, 458 quotes an old gloss which renders by duris durisis the Lat. Dis Ditis, and plainly means a subterranean infernal deity.

In Lower Saxony and Westphalia this Wild Hunter is identified with a particular person, a certain semi-historic master of a hunt. The accounts of him vary. Westphalian traditions call him Hackelbärend, Hackelbernd, Hackelberg, Hackelblock. This Hackelbärend was a huntsman who went a hunting even on Sundays, for which desecration he was after death (like the man in the moon, p. 717) banished into the air, and there with his hound he must hunt night and day, and never rest. Some say, he only hunts in the twelve nights from Christmas to Twelfth-day; others, whenever the storm-wind howls, and therefore he is called by some the jol-jäger (from yawling, or Yule?). (18) Once, in a ride, Hackelberg left one of his hounds behind in Fehrmann's barn at Isenstädt (bpric. Minden). There the dog lay a whole year, and all attempts to dislodge him were in vain. But the next year, when Hackelberg was round again with his wild hunt, the hound suddenly jumped up, and ran yelping and barking after the troop. (19) Two young fellows from Bergkirchen were walking through the wood one evening to visit their sweethearts, when they heard a wild barking of dogs in the air above them, and a voice calling out between 'hoto, hoto!' It was Hackelblock the wild hunter, with his hunt. One of the men had the hardihood to mock his 'hoto, hoto.' Hackelblock with his hounds came up, and set the whole pack upon the infatuated man; from that hour not a trace has been found of the poor fellow. (19) This in Westphalia. The Low Saxon legend says, Hans von Hackelnberg was chief master of the hounds of the Duke of Brunswick, and a mighty woodsman, said to have died in 1521 (some say, born that year, died 1581), Landau's Jagd 190. His tombstone is three leagues from Goslar, in the garden of an inn called the Klepperkrug. He had a bad dream one night; he fancied he was fighting a terrific boar and got beaten at last. He actually met the beast soon after, and brought it down after a hard fight; in the joy of his victory he kicked at the boar, crying 'now slash if you can!' But he had kicked with such force, that the sharp tusk went through his boot, and injured his foot. (20) He thought little of the wound at first, but the foot swelled so that the boot had to be cut off his leg, and a speedy death ensued. Some say he lies buried at Wülperode near Hornburg. (21) This Hackelnberg 'fatsches' in storm and rain, with carriage, horses and hounds, through the Thüringerwald, the Harz, and above all the Hackel (a forest between Halberstadt, Gröningen and Derenburg, conf. Praet. weltb. 1, 88). On his deathbed he would not hear a word about heaven, and to the minister's exhortations he replied: 'the Lord may keep his heaven, so he leave me my hunting;' whereupon the parson spoke: 'hunt then till the Day of Judgment!' which saying is fulfilled unto this day. (22) A faint baying or yelping of hounds gives warning of his approach, before him flies a night-owl named by the people Tutosel (tut-ursel, tooting Ursula). Travellers, when he comes their way, fall silently on their faces, and let him pass by; they hear a barking of dogs and the huntsman's 'huhu!' Tutosel is said to have been a nun, who after her death joined Hackelnberg and mingled her tuhu with his huhu. (23) The people of Altmark place a wild hunter named Hakkeberg in the Drömling, and make him ride down by night with horses and hounds from the Harz into the Drömling (Temme, p. 37). Ad. Kukn no. 17 calls him Hackenberg and Hackelberg: he too is said to have hunted on Sundays, and forced all the peasants in his parish to turn out with him; but one day a pair of horsemen suddenly galloped up to him, each calling to him to come along. One looked wild and fierce, and fire spirted out of his horse's nose and mouth; the left-hand rider seemed more quiet and mild, but Hackelberg turned to the wild one, who galloped off with him, and in his company he must hunt until the Last Day. Kuhn has written down some more stories of the wild hunter without proper names, nos. 63. 175. There are others again, which tell how Hackelberg dwelt in the Sölling, near Uslar, that he had lived in the fear of God, but his heart was so much in the chase, that on his deathbed he prayed God, that for his share of heaven he might be let hunt in the Sölling till the Judgment-day. His wish became his doom, and oft in that forest one hears by night both bark of hound and horrible blast of horn. His grave is in the Sölling too, the arrangement of the stones is minutely described; two black hounds rest beside him.(24) And lastly, Kuhn's no. 205 and Temme's Altmark p. 106 inform us of a heath-rider Bären, whose burial-place is shewn on the heath near Grimnitz in the Ukermark; this Bären's dream of the stumpfschwanz (bobtail, i.e. boar) points unmistakably to Hackelbärend.

The irreconcilable diversity of domiciles is enough to shew, in the teeth of tombstones, that these accounts all deal with a mythical being: a name that crops up in such various localities must be more than historical. I am disposed to pronounce the Westph. form Hackelberend the most ancient and genuine. An OHG. hahhul [Goth. hakuls], ON. hökull m. and hekla f., AS. hacele f., means garment, cloak, cowl, armour; (25) hence hakolberand is OS. for a man in armour, conf. OS. wâpanberand (armiger), AS. æscberend, gârberend, helmb., sweordb. (Gramm. 2, 589). And now remember Oðin's dress (p. 146): the god appears in a broad-brimmed hat, a blue and spotted cloak (hekla blâ, flekkôtt); hakolberand is unmistakably an OS. epithet of the heathen god Wôdan, which was gradually corrupted into Hackelberg, Hackenberg, Hackelblock. The name of the Hackel-wood may be an abbrev. of Hakelbernd's wood. The 'saltus Hakel' in Halberstadt country is mentioned first in the (doubtful) Chron. corbeiense ad an. 936 (Falke p. 708); a long way off, hard by Höxter in the Auga gau, there was a Haculesthorp (Wigand's Corv. güterb. p. 94. Saracho 197. Trad. corb. 385) and afterwards a Hackelbreite; then in L. Hesse, a Hackelsberg near Volkmarsen, and a Hackelberg by Merzhausen (bailiw. Witzenhausen). But if a hakel = wood can be proved, the only trace of a higher being must be looked for in berand, and that may be found someday; in ch. XXXIII. I shall exhibit Hakol in the ON. Hekla as mountain, hence wooded heights, woodland. In any case we here obtain not only another weighty testimony to Woden-worship, but a fresh confirmation of the meaning I attach to the 'wütende heer'; and we see clearly how the folktale of Hackelberg came to be preserved in Westphalia and L. Saxony (where heathenism lasted longer) rather than in South Germany (yet see Habsberg, Hägelberg, Mone's Anz. 4, 309. Hachilstat, Graff 4, 797).

That the wild hunter is to be referred to Wôdan, is made perfectly clear by some Mecklenburg legends.