Claim: Odin is a god.

The Wild Hunt is a European folk myth involving a ghostly or supernatural group of huntsmen passing in wild pursuit . The hunters may be either elves or fairies or the dead , and the leader of the hunt is often a named figure associated with Woden -LRB- or other reflections of the same god , such as Alemannic Wuodan in Wuotis Heer -LRB- `` Wuodan 's Army '' -RRB- of Central Switzerland , Swabia etc. -RRB- , but may variously be a historical or legendary figure like Theodoric the Great , the Danish king Valdemar Atterdag , the Welsh psychopomp Gwyn ap Nudd , biblical figures such as Herod , Cain , Gabriel or the Devil , or an unidentified lost soul or spirit either male or female .   Seeing the Wild Hunt was thought to presage some catastrophe such as war or plague , or at best the death of the one who witnessed it . People encountering the Hunt might also be abducted to the underworld or the fairy kingdom . In some instances , it was also believed that people 's spirits could be pulled away during their sleep to join the cavalcade .   The concept was developed based on comparative mythology by Jacob Grimm in Deutsche Mythologie -LRB- 1835 -RRB- as a folkloristic survival of Germanic pagan tradition , but comparable folk myths are found throughout Northern , Western and Central Europe . Grimm popularised the term Wilde Jagd -LRB- `` Wild Hunt '' -RRB- for the phenomenon .