The Centre for Magic and Esotericism
The Centre for Magic and Esotericism
Posted by vk290
9 January 2026Friday, February 13 | 3:30–5:00 PM | Hybrid (Room & Zoom link TBA)
This February, we are delighted to welcome a visiting speaker for a thought-provoking hybrid event that explores folklore, literature, and the cultural anxieties of our present moment.
Dr Anna Milon will present a talk titled:
In a 2019 article titled ‘The Wild Hunt in the Modern British Imagination’ Ronald Hutton explores the origins and impact of the Wild Hunt folklore motif on anglophone readers. He places the locus of greatest impact this motif exerted in children’s fantasy fiction of the 1960s and 70s. Hutton concludes:
‘With this the sudden and intense surge of interest in the motif by novelists came to an end, and […] it does not seem to have exercised much traction on British authors of fiction since’.
Dr Milon’s paper however, asserts that this is staunchly inaccurate assesment.
Far from disappearing, Milon offers up the case that in the first decades of the 21st century, the Wild Hunt and one of its leaders, Herne the Hunter, are experiencing a dramatic return to popularity equally in pagan spaces, in non-fiction and in the paganesque settings of fantasy literature. Ranging from reimagined Hunts conjured by Zoe Gilbert and Lucy Holland, to Herne’s role as the denizen of national and natural landscapes explored by Nick Hayes, to new histories of the motif by Edmund Newell and Rowan Hunter, Herne’s Wild Hunt seems to fit perfectly into the zeitgeist of our time. But why, Dr Milon asks.
What is it about the Wild Hunt that resonates so strongly in our current cultural moment?
Perhaps it is the dramatized relationship presented between hunter and prey, between perpetrator and victim that lies at the heart of the motif which allows us to explore persecution, prejudice, trauma, and moral purity while fantasising about an unspoiled nature and a heroic medievalesque past…
To explore this further, and hear more of this fascinating and timely piece of research, we hope you will join us, whether in person or online, for what promises to be a fascinating exploration of folklore’s continuing power and relevance.
Dr Anna Milon is a research fellow on the StoryMachine folklore project and a doctoral graduate of the University of Exeter. She lives in Buckinghamshire with her family and two cats.
This event will take place Friday, February 13, from 3:30–5:00 PM, in a hybrid format. The room location and Zoom link will be announced soon.