Herla

Herla or Herla King is a legendary leader of the mythical Germanic Wild Hunt and the name from which the French term, Herlequin may have been derived. Herla often has been identified as Woden and in the writings of the twelfth century writer Walter Map, Herla is portrayed as a legendary king of the ancient Britons who became the leader of the Wild Hunt after a visit to the Otherworld, only to return some three hundred years later, after the lands had been settled by the Anglo-Saxons.

Map's tale occurs in two versions in his De Nugis Curialium. The first and longer account, found in section 1.12, provides far more detail; it tells of Herla's encounter with an otherworldly being, his journey to the latter's homeland, his transformation into the leader of the Hunt after his return to the human realm, and, finally, the disappearance of Herla and his band during the first year of the reign of King Henry II. (A synopsis of this longer version appears below.) The second account, found in section 4.13, includes only the ending of the earlier version. Herla is not mentioned in the second account by name; instead, Map refers to the entire host as "the troop of Herlethingus" (familia Herlethingi).

King Herla is a modernisation of the Old English form Herla cyning, a figure that usually is said to be Woden in his guise as leader of the Germanic Wild Hunt and thus the name is thought to be related to the French Harlequin, the leader of the Wild Hunt in Old French tradition. The same figure in Germanic paganism was described first by Tacitus in terms of the Harii who fought at night taking the appearance of an army of ghosts. The later Germanic tribe of the Heruli are also related to Herla.

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