The Witcher: The Wild Hunt explained

The Wild Hunt only get a quick, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it mention in the pilot of The Witcher, but they’re certainly a more prominent presence in the new season — particularly in the finale where they put the fear of god into everyone.

While not touched on with a ton of depth in season 2, they’re an ominous force that’s integral to understanding the machinations of the season and the grander Witcher universe heading into The WitcherSeason 3.

Is the Wild Hunt a sport?

The Wild Hunt is first mentioned in the second of Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher books, The Sword of DestinyThis is also the subject of the third game. Called the Wraiths of Mörhogg by the islanders of Skellige, and known to their own as the Red Riders, the Wild Hunt is a convoy of spectral riders that gallop across the sky and are regarded as an omen signaling approaching times of war, something The WitcherThe show appears to have observed. They were first mentioned on Netflix just before Nilfgaard attacked Cintra. It was a reference to a King who said he had seen the Wraiths. The first season of Season 2 saw these terrifying riders, which prompted alarms in the human population about the impending end of their world.

Although the Wild Hunt idea predated the Witcher books’ publication, it had a mythological counterpart in Northern European folklore. This motif dates back to centuries and has many interpretations. For some Christians, the devil was the leader of the Wild Hunt riders in Scandinavia. Sometimes they’re the undead, sometimes they’re faeries. Although there are many stories, Jacob Grimm of Brothers Grimm is the one who most widely accepts it. In his book Teutonic Mythology he claimed they were based on Germanic tales.

The Wild Hunt, like their cousins, are well-known for kidnapping innocent people to join their terrifying cavalcade. People from Skellige claim the Wraiths of Mörhogg raid their shores aboard a ship called the Naglfar, a longship made from the nails and toe-nails of dead men, which lead to their practice of cutting the nails of the dead to deprive the wraiths of building materials. It’s a pretty gross and horrifying image, all told.

Why does the Wild Hunt do this?

Image courtesy of Netflix

They aren’t just specters. Psychological warfare is responsible for most of these qualities. Their skeletal armor looks like it has been taken from dead corpses. This creates a spectral appearance that allows them to increase their ranks and conceal those who are not flesh and blood. It’s all a means to terrify any onlookers while they make their raids on the world of humans.

In truth, the Wild Hunt aren’t the undead come to claim the souls of the living. They’re actually elves from another world, known as the Aen Elle, whose world has never been conquered by humans. They are not here to recruit for their cavalry but rather to make them slaves in their home world.

Their ability to move huge numbers among worlds was once a boon. They were able to conquer and explore at their will. However, since the Conjunctions of the Spheres (the cataclysmic events that brought dozens more dimensions into collide), their abilities have become limited. Because the Wild Hunt is limited in their ability to take only a few riders, they have created illusions and theatrics which not only intimidate but also conceal their true number.

That they have any power at all to move between worlds is a feat possible for the riders thanks to the King of the Wild Hunt, known to his brethren as Eredin Bréacc Glas, a general among the Aen Elle who keeps his people supplied with unwilling subjects. Eredin is a contemptuous person, but he also considers the Aen Seidhe, the elves of human world, less because they were conquered by humans.

Their ability to travel between the worlds is decreasing and so, Wild Hunt sets its sights on one prize: Elder Blood.