Today, I had my counseling with my professor about my exams in Old and Middle English Literature. We came to the conclusion that the best topic for me would be the “Other Worlds” that crop up in several texts, one of them Sir Orfeo.

Prof Bridges gave me a short introduction to the tale, and began telling of a strange hunting party, entirely made up by women, that didn’t seem to hunt anything at all. Apparently, Sir Orfeo decides to follow them, and is being lead into the Underworld.

Somehow, this hunting party felt strangely familiar. I heard about that before, and then I remembered: the Swiss folk tales I read as a child. I looked that Wild Hunt up, and indeed:

While these Wild Hunts are recorded by clergymen, and portrayed as diabolic, late medieval English romance like Sir Orfeo, the hunters are rather from a fairy otherworld, as in Celtic countries, where the Wild Hunt was the hosting of the Sidhe, the fairies; its leaders also varied, but they included Gwydion, Gwynn ap Nudd, King Arthur, Nuada, and Herne the Hunter.

It is also to note that the traversing of the bordes between this and the other world often happens when going hunting – the First Branch of the Mabinogion is another example of that.

Would be interesting to start an RPG scenario like this. There’s probably hardly a more classy way to do so.