InEnglish folklore,Herne the Hunter is a ghost associated withWindsor Forest andGreat Park in the English county ofBerkshire. He is said to haveantlers growing from his head, ride a horse, torment cattle, and rattle chains. The earliest mention of Herne comes fromWilliam Shakespeare's 1597 playThe Merry Wives of Windsor, and it is impossible to know how accurately or to what degree Shakespeare may have incorporated a real local legend into his work, though there have been several later attempts to connect Herne to historical figures, pagan deities, or ancientarchetypes.
The earliest written account of Herne comes from Shakespeare's playThe Merry Wives of Windsor (believed to have been written around 1597). Officially published versions of the play refer only to the tale of Herne as the ghost of a former Windsor Forest keeper who haunts a particular oak tree at midnight in the winter time. He is said to have horns, 'blasts' his oak, shake chains and cause cattle to produce blood instead of milk:
There is an old tale goes, that Herne the Hunter (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, Act 4, scene 4
An early, pirated version of the play from 1602 includes a different version of this text, which states that the ghost (spelled "Horne" in this version) was invented to scare children into obedience, and that mothers tell their children the tale of a ghost who walks the forest in the form of a great stag. Because it is a common surname, it is not possible to further identify Shakespeare's Herne, and no earlier references to his legend exist.[1]
Nearly two hundred years later, in 1792,Samuel Ireland slightly expanded on Shakespeare as follows:
The story of this Herne, who was keeper in the forest in the time of Elizabeth, runs thus: – That having committed some great offence, for which he feared to lose his situation and fall into disgrace, he was induced to hang himself on this tree.[2]
There is little written evidence for Herne the Hunter before the 1840s, and the details of his original folk tale have been filtered through the various versions ofShakespeare'sThe Merry Wives of Windsor.
It has been noted that the reference to Herne's death as a suicide fits a traditional belief that this sort of death is more likely to produce a haunting. Shakespeare's reference to rattling chains also fits a very common ghostly motif. However, other elements of the tale are unusual for other ghost stories of Shakespeare's era. Ghostly cattle or dogs were common, but there are few contemporary examples of a ghostly stag. It is possible that Shakespeare invented this detail to better fit the forest setting, or to lead into the humorous image of a character wearing antlers, which would have resembled cuckold's horns to an Elizabethan audience.[1] It was also unusual for ghosts of this period to produce such damaging effects. Herne is described bewitching ("taking") cattle, bloodying their milk, and causing trees to wither.[1]
Herne's Oak, illustration fromA Picturesque Tour of the River Thames in Its Western Course (1849)
Herne became widely popularised after his appearance in Shakespeare's play, and the supposed location of Herne's Oak was, for many years, a matter of local speculation and controversy. SomeOrdnance Survey maps show Herne's Oak a little to the north ofFrogmore House in theHome Park (adjoiningWindsor Great Park). This tree was felled in 1796. In 1838, Edward Jesse claimed that a different tree in the avenue was the real Herne's Oak, and this gained in popularity especially withQueen Victoria. This tree was blown down on 31 August 1863, and Queen Victoria had another tree planted on the same site. The Queen's tree was removed in 1906 when the avenue was replanted.
One of the new oaks planted in 1906 is currently given the title of Herne's Oak.[1]
Further details have entered the folklore from even later sources and reported sightings, such as those in the 1920s.[3]William Harrison Ainsworth's 1843 novelWindsor Castle featured Herne and popularised his legend. Ainsworth's version of the tale added a number of new details, including having Herne being gored by a stag, only to have the Devil save him on the condition that he wear the stag's antlers.Jacob Grimm was the first to suggest, very influentially, that Herne had once been thought of as the leader of theWild Hunt, based on his title.[1]
In the 20th century, further details were added to Herne's legend, including the idea that his ghost appears shortly before national disasters and the deaths of kings. It was also during the 20th century that incidents of personal encounters with the ghost, or of people hearing his hounds and horn in Windsor Forest, were first reported.[1]
Various theories have been proposed to account for the origin of the character, none of which has been proved conclusive, and the source for many of the tales told of Herne remains unknown.
Palaeolithic origins and relationship with the Celtic Cernunnos
In his 1929 bookThe History of the Devil – The Horned God of the West R. Lowe Thompson suggests that "Herne" as well as otherWild Huntsmen inEuropean folklore all derive from the same ancient source, citing that "Herne" may be a cognate of the name ofGaulish deityCernunnos in the same way that the English "horn" is a cognate of the Latin "cornu" (seeGrimm's Law for more details on this linguistic feature) explaining that "As the Latin cornu changes into horn so might Cerne change into Herne." He adds, "In any case the reader may also be prepared to recognize Cernunnos and the older magician, who emerge as the Wild Huntsman. My assumption is that these two forms have been derived from the same Paleolithic ancestor and can, indeed, be regarded as two aspects of one central figure, will help us to understand the identification of Herlechin and Herne, whom I will take as the most familiar example of the huntsman."[4]Margaret Murray also identified Cernunnos with Herne in her 1933 bookThe God of the Witches.[5] Some modernNeopagans such asWiccans accept Lowe Thompson's equation of Herne with Cernunnos (which they further connect to theGreco-Roman godPan).[6] Herne however is a localised figure, not found outside Berkshire and the regions of the surrounding counties into which Windsor Forest once spread, and clear evidence for the worship of Cernunnos has been recovered only on the European mainland, and not in Britain.[7] "Herne" could be derived ultimately from the same Indo-European root *ker-n-, meaning bone or horn, from which "Cernunnos" derives.[8] However, a more direct source may be theOld Englishhyrne, meaning "horn" or "corner",[9][10][11] which is inconsistent with the Cernunnos theory.[12]
In theEarly Middle Ages, Windsor Forest came under the control of the paganAngles who worshipped their own pantheon of gods, includingWoden, whose Norse equivalentOdin rode across the night sky with his ownWild Hunt and hanged himself on theworld treeYggdrasil to learn the secret of therunic alphabet. It has been suggested that the nameHerne is derived from the titleHerian,[13] a title used for Woden in his role as leader of fallen warriors (Old Norse:Einherjar).[14][15][16][17]
Samuel Ireland identified Herne as a real historical individual, saying that he died an unholy death of the type that might have given rise to tales of hauntings by his unquiet spirit.[2][non-primary source needed] The fact that Herne is apparently a purely local figure supports this theory. One possibility is that Herne is supposed to be the ghost of Richard Horne, ayeoman during the reign ofHenry VIII who was caught poaching in the wood. This suggestion was first made byJames Halliwell-Phillipps, who identified a document listing Horne as a "hunter" who had confessed to poaching.[18] The earliest edition ofThe Merry Wives of Windsor spells the name "Horne".[19]
François-André Danican Philidor's lost opera,Herne le chasseur (1773), is an adaptation ofThe Merry Wives of Windsor giving Herne the title role.
Carl Otto Nicolai's operaDie lustigen Weiber von Windsor (1845/46) includes Falstaff, disguised as Herne, on the musical stage.
Arrigo Boito, composing alibretto forVerdi's operaFalstaff by improvising upon materials inMerry Wives andHenry 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 Herne the Hunter is recognisable. Carlo Prospero Defranceschi wrote a similar libretto for composerAntonio Salieri that specifically mentions Herne.
Two characters inLloyd Alexander'shigh fantasy seriesThe Chronicles of Prydain seem to have been inspired by Herne the Hunter. The villainous Horned King wears an antlered skull mask, and Gwyn the Hunter is a supernatural herald whose horn and baying hounds are heard when a few characters meet their deaths.
InTad Williams'Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series, Hern the Hunter founded the proud woodland kingdom of Hernysadharc, its people, the Hernystiri, ruled by the House of Hern whose emblem was a White Stag. The Hernystiri shared a special bond with the Sithi – an elvish-like people otherwise referred to as the Fair Folk.
Herne the Hunted is a parody of Herne the Hunter inTerry Pratchett'sDiscworld 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 inRuth Nichols' children's novelThe Marrow of the World. His character has no supernatural attributes.
Herne made an appearance in theBitterbynde trilogy byCecilia 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 protagonist.
Herne the Hunter appears as a supporting character inSimon Green'sNightside series. He actually appears on the cover ofHex and the City (Book 4), although his role in the actual novel is rather inconsequential.
Herne the Hunter is one of the antagonists inC. E. Murphy'sUrban Shaman.
Herne the Hunter of the Mers and consort of the queen, also known by the title "Starbuck", in the 1980 novelThe Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge. Won the Hugo award for best novel in 1981 and also nominated for the Nebula award that same year.
Lord Herne is the true name of the Horned King (also referred to as the Horned Man, the Hunter of Dark, and the Master of Winter) inJane Yolen's 1995 bookThe Wild Hunt. He represents "...the dark, the night, the cold. He is chaos and anger and war."[21]
Herne the Hunter is the main character in Zoe Gilbert’s 2022 novelMischief Acts.
Herne was incorporated into theRobin Hood legend in the 1984 television series,Robin of Sherwood. In it, Robin of Loxley is called by Herne to take on the mantle of "the Hooded Man", which Robin's father had predicted. It is Herne who encourages Loxley to become 'Robin in the Hood' and to use hisband of outlaws to fight for good against the evilNorman oppressors. Herne's appearance bears a very strong resemblance to the illustrations that previously depicted him, in that an otherwise unnamedshaman character, portrayed by actorJohn Abineri, dons a stag's head and tells Robin that "when the horned one possesses [him]", he becomes the spirit of the forest.[21] Herne featured in 17 of the 26 episodes of the series and was shown to have variousmagical abilities. The series' adaptation of the Robin Hood mythos has become extremely influential and many of its brand-new elements have since been reinterpreted in a manner of different ways in nearly all of the subsequent films and television series of the legend.
Herne the Hunter is also featured as a guiding character in the 1984 BBC TV adaptation of Masefield's novelThe Box of Delights.
Herne is a forest spirit in issue No. 26 of theGreen Arrow comic book series.
A tree-like magical being named Herne is a prominent antagonist in the 2004 action-adventure video gameThe Bard's Tale.
Herne the Hunter isMonster In My Pocket #56, found in the second series. The figure was removed from later European assortments.
In 2010, Herne the Hunter appeared in the Big FinishDoctor Who audio adventureLeviathan, a "lost" story from theColin Baker years (an unproduced script from the 1980s).
A deer-headed huntsman named Herne appears inUrsula Vernon's Hugo-award-winning webcomicDigger.
The Danish bandWuthering Heights published a song called "Longing for the Woods Part III: Herne's Prophecy" on their albumFar From The Madding Crowd in 2004, and Erik Ravn also said "Herne protect you!" at the end of their live show at theProgPower festival in Atlanta, Georgia in the summer of 2004.
TheBloodmoon expansion for the fantasy computer RPGThe Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind includes a key character called Hircine the Hunter, a horned deity clearly heavily influenced by Herne the Hunter and Cernunnos.
Herne is mentioned and used as a character in the bookHunted by Kevin Hearne.Hunted is the sixth book in the Iron Druid Chronicles.
In theWild Cards series of books, Dylan Hardesty is a mutant who becomes Herne the Huntsman at night, an 8-feet-tall stagman with the power to induce rage and bloodlust in all those who listen to the call of his horn, and to summon the Gabriel Hounds.
In theWorld of Warcraft: Shadowlands expansion, an elite NPC character called Lord Herne, appearing similar to a male dryad and known as a vorkai in the game, is part of The Wild Hunt faction and serves as a combat trainer when completing the Night Fae covenant's calling quests.
In the 2024 Disney + television seriesRenegade Nell (series 1) where Herne the Hunter is conjured by the character Robert Hennessey, Earl of Poynton (played by Adrian Lester). The appearance of Herne the Hunter is thought to foreshadow the death of a monarch.
^Bosworth, Joseph.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 ... Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, 1838. Page 189.
^Petry, Michael John (1972).Herne the Hunter: A Berkshire Legend. William Smith (Booksellers) Ltd.ISBN978-0-9500218-8-1.
^Jeffrey Theis,The "ill kill'd" Deer: Poaching and Social Order in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Texas Studies in Literature and Language 43.1 (2001) 46–73.
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