The Wild Hunt

by

Juli D. Revezzo

During the Halloween season everyone seems in love with the paranormal. The dark and scary are all accepted. But few know, or at least consciously, that this is known as the dark time of the year, the time from Samhain/Halloween to early Spring. From the archaeologists we know ancient peoples saw the sun sinking lower on the horizon every day this time of year, they’d seen the leaves falling off trees, and that the hunt for the foods they needed to survive became harder with the coming of the colder temperatures””and they feared it. This superstition and fear gave rise to the belief that death rode the skies at this time of the year. This spawned the rituals our ancestors devised, lighting sacred fires and wearing masks to chase away evil spirits”¦. In honor of the memory of that quaint fear, today (at least for one day out of the year) we and our children dress up in costumes in fun, just as our ancestors did to drive the darkness away.

In my latest paranormal romance novel, CHANGELING’S CROWN, the characters live on two sides of a dividing line: the light and the dark. The good (light) faeries, the faery godmothers, and their brethren live on the light side of things. The somewhat questionable (or downright bad) faeries are dubbed dark. Between them, like the light and the dark in many world mythologies, they fight for dominance””sometimes rising, sometimes falling. From time to time, there is one dark battle they all take part in: The Wild Hunt.

The wild hunt: Åsgårdsreien (1872) by Peter Nicolai Arbo

The Wild Hunt sequence in my novel CHANGELING’S CROWN isn’t just some strange imagining of my own. No, it’s based on the mythological event of The Wild Hunt spoken of in Norse Mythology. The Wild Hunt, the Norse believed, was a time when Odin and his Hordes rode through the skies, gathering up the souls of the dead. Usually this takes place “¦well, now. In my book, I embellished a little. My version of the Wild Hunt happens out of season, and to its leader, the king of the dark faeries, Briak, it’s just a common part of his job. Usually he’s in control of it, but this time, other than the timing, he’s somewhat lost that control. In the frenzy of battle, he comes across Ianthe, the faery godmother/light faery whom he’s fallen in love with and has been courting throughout.

She’s there to (hopefully) help those caught in the fracas. However, she gets a little more than she bargained for as this is the first time she’s seen her beloved in his true element.

Huge, frightening stuff.

Briak has charmed the quirky, somewhat awkward Ianthe, and loves her even though she can’t quite get a handle on her faery godmother duties. He’s tried to tell her the truth of what he does, but is afraid of scaring her off”¦. For how can a sweet woman like her be in love with the leader of such chaos?

You’ll have to read to find out! After all, even if only once a year, we all love the scary”¦just a little.

If you’d like to read more of CHANGELING’S CROWN, here’s the blurb:

When Ianthe began her career as a faery godmother, she stumbled so badly that Snow White will probably never speak to her again. After a long suspension, she’s finally been given a chance to redeem herself”¦but everything on this latest assignment is going wrong.

But why?

Worse, she definitely doesn’t need an attractive mortal man distracting her from her duties. Of course, needs and wants are two different things.

Briak has had his eye on Ianthe for a very, very long time, but he’s been waiting for just the right moment to make his move. Despite the fact all hell’s about to break loose on his watch, he can’t resist the opportunity to insert himself into her earthly assignment. Can he convince Ianthe of her true calling and thereby win her heart? Or will his subterfuge ultimately cost him her love?

You can find out more about me and my novel CHANGELING’S CROWN (and all my works) at my homepage: http://julidrevezzo.com/

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Thank you to the Coffee Crew for having me. Have a happy Halloween season, everyone!