In the mood for a Medieval ghost story? In 12th century Europe, tales dealing with a procession of the dead (often aristocratic soldiers), who are doomed to wander the earth to atone for their sins and often appeared to be suffering,, became popular. One of these sorts of tails was recorded by an Englishman named Walter Map.
In this story, a King named Herla attended the wedding of a dwarven king inside a mountain cave. As he left, he was given a white bloodhound to hold and told that neither he nor his followers could dismount until the dog had left the king’s arms. When Kung Herla left the wedding, he discovered that time had passed differently while he was in the land of the fey: 200 years rather than only three days. Shocked, some of his men dismounted from their horses, whereupon they turned into dust.
And thus, the men of Herla’s hunt were doomed to continuously wander, because the white dog has not yet dismounted. Over time, Herla’s identity was often merged with the Germanic deity Odin, but the OG tale kept these tales separate.
Sources: Celtic literature collective, “King Herla and the Wild Hunt Walter Map Bodl.MS 851, 1.xi. De nugis curialium. medievalists.net, “The Wild Hunts of Medieval Lore” Karin Murray-Bergquist. Ronald Hutton, “The Wild Hunt and the Witches’ Sabbath,” _Folklore_ Aug 2014, vol 125, no 2, pp 161-168
