Herne Bags
Description: An old English folk legend. Herne The Hunter was a poacher and some time gamekeeper of Windsor Forest who was killed in an unholy fashion. Now his antlered spirit is said to wander the wood, claiming the souls of those he meets. He was incorporated into the Robin Hood mythos by the 1980s TV show Robin Of Sherwood in which his appearance in Sherwood Forest encouraged Robert of Loxley to take on the mantle of the Hooded Man and defend the forest and its residents from injustice and black magic. Herne also appeared as a character in the fondly remembered BBC adaptation of the Christmas fantasy story, The Box of Delights.
Description: In Celtic culture, the mysterious image of a horned being permeates from the Iron Age in the Gaulish La Tène culture all the way up to 19th century England in the legends of Herne the Hunter. In spite of several depictions of a “horned god” in Celtic artwork throughout the centuries, the answers to exactly who this horned being was is not clear. The name “Cernunnos” is found on an artifact known as “the Pillar of the Boatman”. It’s a carving from the first century CE, and it is the only time the name Cernunnos appears in reference to this horned being. However, the oldest image of Cernunnos is found on the Gundestrup Cauldron, an Iron Age relic of the ancient Celtic people of mainland Europe. Modern interpretation speculates that C...
Description: Cernunnos is the “Horned One”, a Celtic god associated with sexuality, fertility, the hunt, and the underworld. He was worshiped as the “lord of wild things” by the iron age Celts all across Europe as late as the first century, but his worship began centuries before that. Cernunnos is nearly always portrayed with animals, in particular the stag. He alternates with the goddess of the moon in ruling over life and death, continuing the cycle of death, rebirth and reincarnation.
