{"id":6980,"date":"2012-08-01T01:10:27","date_gmt":"2012-08-01T06:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/content\/?p=7189"},"modified":"2012-07-27T17:24:40","modified_gmt":"2012-07-27T22:24:40","slug":"hedge-riders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2012\/08\/01\/hedge-riders\/","title":{"rendered":"Hedge Riders"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Anglo-Saxon for a hedge rider is h\u00e6gtessa.\u00a0 In the Elder Edda<\/span> (Havamal 155), Odin speaks of scanning them sporting aloft in the sky, having left their skins behind on the ridge.\u00a0 \u201cScanning\u201d here may mean something different from mere seeing.\u00a0 If people in the so-called Dark Ages were able to see such things, we must consider what this means if we are to identify and locate the hedge itself.<\/p>\n

One possibility is that such things did occur, however rarely, and some people saw them.\u00a0 They do not occur now because there are no more hedge riders to be seen.\u00a0 Another is that Odin\u2019s \u2018scanning\u2019 meant something different from mere seeing, a form of specialized perception such as that employed in \u2018scrying\u2019 a crystal.<\/p>\n

The modern \u2018rationalist\u2019 explanation would be that occasionally someone saw something unusual moving through the sky, and, like modern UFO seekers, interpreted what they saw in accordance with their beliefs.\u00a0 This fails to explain how such beliefs arose initially, since surely a belief in h\u00e6gtessa or ghost riders in the sky, or whatever, would have to become well-ingrained in order to affect perception.<\/p>\n

In the case of many such accounts in folk cultures (that is, cultures which pass on a large body of legend and wisdom orally from generation to generation), recent investigators have noted that it is generally always a second- or third-hand account, and what was seen or occurred happened in the next village, never this one.<\/p>\n

The difference between the first two explanations could be illustrated by the hypothetical case of a modern person going back in a time machine to a time and place where the h\u00e6gtessa were being observed.\u00a0 Would our time traveler see them as well?\u00a0 The consciousness of someone from the late heathen period might be structured differently.\u00a0 To think that the \u2018Dark Age\u2019 observer saw the world precisely as we do nowadays, but simply interpreted unusual perceptions according to some archaic belief, is rather crude and simplistic.\u00a0 It is more likely that beliefs, if ultimately responsible for such apperceptions, will have sunk deeply into the consciousness of the perceiver, so that the time traveler would not be able to determine what was being perceived; his or her perceptual equipment would work differently.<\/p>\n

The h\u00e6gtessa, if they exist, may be having somewhat different perceptions themselves.\u00a0 They may have been lying in their skins on the nearby ridge and experiencing a different sort of flight.<\/p>\n

I cannot answer these questions, but I can provide a myth or tale that illustrates one way of understanding them:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A Meeting of Sorcerers<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The tale-finder had traced the story as far as a small tavern in a remote village.\u00a0 Quaffing his ale, he greeted the other guests and, after a customary exchange of pleasantries, asked if anyone present had heard the story Hob told of a midnight meeting of sorcerers.\u00a0 There was some chuckling, and then a giant of a man sitting in the corner replied that he knew the tale, or knew of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt isn\u2019t much of a story,\u201d he began. \u201cThis farmhand Hob, in some stead over the river, was about to head home for the evening when the Mistress of the farm stopped by and asked him if he would wait on some guests who were due to arrive later that night.\u00a0 She said he could enjoy a full supper after they had eaten, and all he had to do was pour water and ale for them, then serve them food when they called for it. For the rest, he was to stay out of the way and not pry, but remain within earshot.\u00a0 He would get extra wages for it.\u00a0 She said that usually she tended them when they came, but she had to go see to a sick sister over the ridge.<\/p>\n

\u201cHob agreed, and along about ten or eleven in the evening they arrived heavily cloaked on horseback.\u00a0 He took their steeds to the barn while they settled themselves comfortably in the straw-strewn main room of the farmhouse.\u00a0 There were about a dozen present, plus one who sat a little apart.\u00a0 He was taller and thinner than the others, and evidently in charge of the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cHob brought them well-water and ale, and then retired to an adjoining room, shutting the door between.\u00a0 Being an inquisitive sort of fellow, though, and telling himself he had to listen for their meal-call, he left the door ajar by a little crack and sat close by.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe room was quiet for a time, then the leader spoke softly.\u00a0 Hob could just see him through the crack.<\/p>\n

\u201c \u2018Gentlemen, are you all comfortable?\u2019\u00a0 There were several grunts of assent. \u2018Have you all found your places?\u00a0 Have you removed your heads?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he heard that, Hob felt a chill.\u00a0 He wanted very much to widen the door-crack to see if their heads were off, but did not dare.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe leader said \u2018Very well, now my head is off.\u2019\u00a0 A great fear fell on Hob as he saw the leader sitting in his place with his head in his hands.\u00a0 His neck was not bloodied, and his voice seemed to be coming from the hole in his shoulders. He couldn\u2019t see the other sorcerers but assumed they looked the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt one point, everyone stood up and began pacing in a circle round the room.\u00a0 Their heads, apparently, were set aside somewhere safe where they would not be kicked or tripped over accidentally.\u00a0 As the pacing continued, the headless sorcerers seemed to rise slightly until they were circling together two or three inches off the ground.\u00a0 Peering through the crack, Hob saw them pass by one at a time, each without a head on his shoulders!\u00a0 At the same time, an enormous buzzing noise started filling the room, and energy throbbed so strongly that it pushed Hob\u2019s door fully closed, without, however making a sound.\u00a0 Hob was deathly afraid the headless sorcerers would discover him spying on them, and take off his<\/em> head, but they took no notice and, from the sound, apparently continued circling a while longer.\u00a0 Finally they stopped, and it would seem that each resumed his seat, since it grew quiet once again.\u00a0 The throbbing had ceased.<\/p>\n

\u201cHob was afraid they would call for food with their heads off, but presently the leader said \u2018Gentlemen, you may now replace your heads and lose your places.\u2019\u00a0 They then called for him to bring in the food.\u00a0 As soon as he had done so, he withdrew and, not waiting to gather the dishes later, much less eat the leavings of such uncanny creatures, quietly left the farmhouse and tore off across the fields as though the night-hag were after him!\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

All the guests roared with laughter, a little nervously, and complimented the giant on his narration.\u00a0 The tale-finder thanked him and bought everyone a round, but secretly he felt disappointed, since he had had the tale in this form before.\u00a0 He thought perhaps he hadn\u2019t gotten any closer to its place of origin.<\/p>\n

After a while, he asked the giant where he had heard the story.\u00a0 The narrator answered, somewhat shortly, that it was in general circulation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs this Hob still about?\u201d he asked the room.\u00a0 Someone remarked that he had died in his grandfather\u2019s time, but it was known that he never returned to that farm, not even to collect his wages.\u00a0 He decided the Mistress must be a h\u00e6gtessa to play hostess to such beings, and he shortly left the district.\u00a0 But before he left, he told his story to a bard, a lore master in the hills this side of the river, who passed it on to his successor, and in this way it got around.<\/p>\n

The tale-finder asked where he might find this bard or his current successor, and after some grumbling, especially from the giant, someone gave him directions.\u00a0 He explained then diplomatically that his work involved hunting down the oldest form of such tales.\u00a0 He doubted he would ever hear the story told better than it was told tonight, he added.\u00a0 With that, the giant grinned and everyone relaxed.\u00a0 They drank another round of ale, and then the tale-finder rose and bidding them all good evening, went to his bed in the loft above the tavern.<\/p>\n

In the morning he rose early, paid the innkeeper, saddled his horse and rode into the hills.\u00a0 He had no trouble finding the cot of the bard, and by lunchtime was seated across a rude table from him.\u00a0 This was not indeed the man Hob had told, but his second successor.\u00a0 The tale-finder repeated the story as the giant had told it and waited for the bard to make comments.<\/p>\n

He said nothing for a while, but smiled and snorted a bit.\u00a0 \u201cYes,\u201d he said at last, \u201cthat is the popular version, but it is not what Hob told old White Hawk.\u00a0 He said that after the leader of the group had told everyone to take his head off, and had said that now his head was off, Hob was surprised to see his head was still there, securely on his shoulders.\u00a0 But you should have surmised this,\u201d he added, raising an eyebrow, \u201celse why would he have bothered to tell the others his head was off? Or why would he have asked them if they had removed their own heads, since with his on he could obviously have seen they were headless?\u201d<\/p>\n

He took a bite of bread, shrugged, and added \u201cBut of course, really headless sorcerers make a better tale.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the circling?\u201d asked the tale-finder, \u201cthe rising into the air?\u201d<\/p>\n

The bard smiled wryly.\u00a0 \u201cThat is a subtler matter.\u00a0 It is possible they became lighter, and perhaps they even floated a bit in their pacing.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think Hob exaggerated that very much.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what of the strange buzzing that filled the room?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat you would have to experience for yourself,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t think it was heard with the ears.\u00a0 It was, perhaps, more like a pressure.\u201d\u00a0 He nodded and rose.\u00a0 Lunch and the interview were over.<\/p>\n

The tale-finder thanked him for his information and hospitality.\u00a0 He felt more confused than ever, though.\u00a0 As he turned to say good-bye at the door, the bard thought of something else.\u00a0 He brought a bucket of well-water and held it up to the tale-finder\u2019s chest.\u00a0 \u201cIt is customary in these parts,\u201d he said, \u201cfor us to share a drink of water before parting. But before I dip the ladle, look into the bucket.\u00a0 Tell me what you see.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tale-finder looked and saw his weather-worn face looking up at him. \u201cMy face , my head,\u201d he said.\u00a0 The bard pulled the bucket away.\u00a0 \u201cAnd now,\u201d he said, smiling, \u201cwhere is your head?\u201d\u00a0 The tale-finder felt his forehead and cheeks and said, \u201cWell, here it is, only I can\u2019t see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cExactly,\u201d the bard answered.\u00a0 But do you usually notice that you can\u2019t see it? If you don\u2019t, you reside in your thoughts.\u00a0 You have lost your place in the room.\u00a0 Do you understand?\u201d<\/p>\n

The tale-finder\u2019s mouth fell open.\u00a0 \u201cSo that\u2019s it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s it.\u201d\u00a0 They shared a farewell drink of water, and the tale-finder went on his way.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*The place the sorcerers found when they took off their heads is the hedge, or a first glimpse of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Anglo-Saxon for a hedge rider is h\u00e6gtessa.\u00a0 In the Elder Edda (Havamal 155), Odin speaks of scanning them sporting aloft in the sky, having left their skins behind on the ridge.\u00a0 \u201cScanning\u201d here may mean something different from mere seeing.\u00a0 If people in the so-called Dark Ages were able to see such things, we must consider what this means if we are to identify and locate the hedge itself. One possibility is that such things did occur, however rarely, and some people saw them.\u00a0 They do not occur now because there are no more hedge riders to be seen.\u00a0 Another is that Odin\u2019s \u2018scanning\u2019 meant something different from mere seeing, a form of specialized perception such as that employed in \u2018scrying\u2019 a crystal. The modern \u2018rationalist\u2019 explanation would be that occasionally someone saw something unusual moving through the sky, and, like modern UFO seekers, interpreted what they saw in accordance with their beliefs.\u00a0 This fails to explain how such beliefs arose initially, since surely a belief in h\u00e6gtessa or ghost riders in the sky, or whatever, would have to become well-ingrained in order to affect perception. In the case of many such accounts in folk cultures (that is, cultures which pass on a large body of legend and wisdom orally from generation to generation), recent investigators have noted that it is generally always a second- or third-hand account, and what was seen or occurred happened in the next village, never this one. The difference between the first two explanations could be illustrated by the hypothetical case of a modern person going back in a time machine to a time and place where the h\u00e6gtessa were being observed.\u00a0 Would our time traveler see them as well?\u00a0 The consciousness of someone from the late heathen period might be structured differently.\u00a0 To think that the \u2018Dark Age\u2019 observer saw the world precisely as we do nowadays, but simply interpreted unusual perceptions according to some archaic belief, is rather crude and simplistic.\u00a0 It is more likely that beliefs, if ultimately responsible for such apperceptions, will have sunk deeply into the consciousness of the perceiver, so that the time traveler would not be able to determine what was being perceived; his or her perceptual equipment would work differently. The h\u00e6gtessa, if they exist, may be having somewhat different perceptions themselves.\u00a0 They may have been lying in their skins on the nearby ridge and experiencing a different sort of flight. I cannot answer these questions, but I can provide a myth or tale that illustrates one way of understanding them:   A Meeting of Sorcerers   The tale-finder had traced the story as far as a small tavern in a remote village.\u00a0 Quaffing his ale, he greeted the other guests and, after a customary exchange of pleasantries, asked if anyone present had heard the story Hob told of a midnight meeting of sorcerers.\u00a0 There was some chuckling, and then a giant of a man sitting in the corner replied that he knew the tale, or knew of it. \u201cIt isn\u2019t much of a story,\u201d he began. \u201cThis farmhand Hob, in some stead over the river, was about to head home for the evening when the Mistress of the farm stopped by and asked him if he would wait on some guests who were due to arrive later that night.\u00a0 She said he could enjoy a full supper after they had eaten, and all he had to do was pour water and ale for them, then serve them food when they called for it. For the rest, he was to stay out of the way and not pry, but remain within earshot.\u00a0 He would get extra wages for it.\u00a0 She said that usually she tended them when they came, but she had to go see to a sick sister over the ridge. \u201cHob agreed, and along about ten or eleven in the evening they arrived heavily cloaked on horseback.\u00a0 He took their steeds to the barn while they settled themselves comfortably in the straw-strewn main room of the farmhouse.\u00a0 There were about a dozen present, plus one who sat a little apart.\u00a0 He was taller and thinner than the others, and evidently in charge of the meeting. \u201cHob brought them well-water and ale, and then retired to an adjoining room, shutting the door between.\u00a0 Being an inquisitive sort of fellow, though, and telling himself he had to listen for their meal-call, he left the door ajar by a little crack and sat close by. \u201cThe room was quiet for a time, then the leader spoke softly.\u00a0 Hob could just see him through the crack. \u201c \u2018Gentlemen, are you all comfortable?\u2019\u00a0 There were several grunts of assent. \u2018Have you all found your places?\u00a0 Have you removed your heads?\u2019 \u201cWhen he heard that, Hob felt a chill.\u00a0 He wanted very much to widen the door-crack to see if their heads were off, but did not dare. \u201cThe leader said \u2018Very well, now my head is off.\u2019\u00a0 A great fear fell on Hob as he saw the leader sitting in his place with his head in his hands.\u00a0 His neck was not bloodied, and his voice seemed to be coming from the hole in his shoulders. He couldn\u2019t see the other sorcerers but assumed they looked the same. \u201cAt one point, everyone stood up and began pacing in a circle round the room.\u00a0 Their heads, apparently, were set aside somewhere safe where they would not be kicked or tripped over accidentally.\u00a0 As the pacing continued, the headless sorcerers seemed to rise slightly until they were circling together two or three inches off the ground.\u00a0 Peering through the crack, Hob saw them pass by one at a time, each without a head on his shoulders!\u00a0 At the same time, an enormous buzzing noise started filling the room, and energy throbbed so strongly that it pushed Hob\u2019s door fully closed, without, however making a sound.\u00a0 Hob was deathly afraid the headless sorcerers would discover him spying on them, and take off his head, but they took no notice and, from the sound, apparently continued circling a while longer.\u00a0 Finally they stopped, and it would seem that each resumed his seat, since it grew quiet once again.\u00a0 The throbbing had ceased. \u201cHob was afraid they would call for food with their heads off, but presently the leader said \u2018Gentlemen, you may now replace your heads and lose your places.\u2019\u00a0 They then called for him to bring in the food.\u00a0 As soon as he had done so, he withdrew and, not waiting to gather the dishes later, much less eat the leavings of such uncanny creatures, quietly left the farmhouse and tore off across the fields as though the night-hag were after him!\u201d     All the guests roared with laughter, a little nervously, and complimented the giant on his narration.\u00a0 The tale-finder thanked him and bought everyone a round, but secretly he felt disappointed, since he had had the tale in this form before.\u00a0 He thought perhaps he hadn\u2019t gotten any closer to its place of origin. After a while, he asked the giant where he had heard the story.\u00a0 The narrator answered, somewhat shortly, that it was in general circulation. \u201cIs this Hob still about?\u201d he asked the room.\u00a0 Someone remarked that he had died in his grandfather\u2019s time, but it was known that he never returned to that farm, not even to collect his wages.\u00a0 He decided the Mistress must be a h\u00e6gtessa to play hostess to such beings, and he shortly left the district.\u00a0 But before he left, he told his story to a bard, a lore master in the hills this side of the river, who passed it on to his successor, and in this way it got around. The tale-finder asked where he might find this bard or his current successor, and after some grumbling, especially from the giant, someone gave him directions.\u00a0 He explained then diplomatically that his work involved hunting down the oldest form of such tales.\u00a0 He doubted he would ever hear the story told better than it was told tonight, he added.\u00a0 With that, the giant grinned and everyone relaxed.\u00a0 They drank another round of ale, and then the tale-finder rose and bidding them all good evening, went to his bed in the loft above the tavern. In the morning he rose early, paid the innkeeper, saddled his horse and rode into the hills.\u00a0 He had no trouble finding the cot of the bard, and by lunchtime was seated across a rude table from him.\u00a0 This was not indeed the man Hob had told, but his second successor.\u00a0 The tale-finder repeated the story as the giant had told it and waited for the bard to make comments. He said nothing for a while, but smiled and snorted a bit.\u00a0 \u201cYes,\u201d he said at last, \u201cthat is the popular version, but it is not what Hob told old White Hawk.\u00a0 He said that after the leader of the group had told everyone to take his head off, and had said that now his head was off, Hob was surprised to see his head was still there, securely on his shoulders.\u00a0 But you should have surmised this,\u201d he added, raising an eyebrow, \u201celse why would he have bothered to tell the others his head was off? Or why would he have asked them if they had removed their own heads, since with his on he could obviously have seen they were headless?\u201d He took a bite of bread, shrugged, and added \u201cBut of course, really headless sorcerers make a better tale.\u201d \u201cAnd the circling?\u201d asked the tale-finder, \u201cthe rising into the air?\u201d The bard smiled wryly.\u00a0 \u201cThat is a subtler matter.\u00a0 It is possible they became lighter, and perhaps they even floated a bit in their pacing.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think Hob exaggerated that very much.\u201d \u201cAnd what of the strange buzzing that filled the room?\u201d \u201cThat you would have to experience for yourself,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t think it was heard with the ears.\u00a0 It was, perhaps, more like a pressure.\u201d\u00a0 He nodded and rose.\u00a0 Lunch and the interview were over. The tale-finder thanked him for his information and hospitality.\u00a0 He felt more confused than ever, though.\u00a0 As he turned to say good-bye at the door, the bard thought of something else.\u00a0 He brought a bucket of well-water and held it up to the tale-finder\u2019s chest.\u00a0 \u201cIt is customary in these parts,\u201d he said, \u201cfor us to share a drink of water before parting. But before I dip the ladle, look into the bucket.\u00a0 Tell me what you see.\u201d The tale-finder looked and saw his weather-worn face looking up at him. \u201cMy face , my head,\u201d he said.\u00a0 The bard pulled the bucket away.\u00a0 \u201cAnd now,\u201d he said, smiling, \u201cwhere is your head?\u201d\u00a0 The tale-finder felt his forehead and cheeks and said, \u201cWell, here it is, only I can\u2019t see it.\u201d \u201cExactly,\u201d the bard answered.\u00a0 But do you usually notice that you can\u2019t see it? If you don\u2019t, you reside in your thoughts.\u00a0 You have lost your place in the room.\u00a0 Do you understand?\u201d The tale-finder\u2019s mouth fell open.\u00a0 \u201cSo that\u2019s it?\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s it.\u201d\u00a0 They shared a farewell drink of water, and the tale-finder went on his way.   *The place the sorcerers found when they took off their heads is the hedge, or a first glimpse of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6980\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}