THE GERMANIC HUNT OF THE WILD BOAR

       Germanic folks have lived in settlements and cultivated livestock for at least one hundred thousand years.  As well as domesticated pigs which sometimes got loose, there were also the wild European boars which ran the oak forests.  It has been tradition during all these years for a bold Germanic man to take to the woods with his loyal dogs and a spear to hunt the rampant boars.  The dogs chased the hogs toward their master and he impaled them with a mighty thrust as the boar ran straight toward him.  It has been tradition to especially make such a hunt at Yule to honor the mythological wild hunt.

       The boar Menhir is known to spring from a stone on the longest night of the year.  He runs loose faster than any creature in the world save the one-eyed god Wotan’s eight-legged horse Sleipnir.  Menhir would destroy everything in chaos were he not checked.  Wotan gives chase to the swine with his two wolves Freke and Gere riding on Sleipnir’s wind.  The wolves bite at Menhir and Wotan spears the boar with his lance, Gungnir.  This wild hunt is celebrated with a feast of pork on Yule.