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The Church could not deny the Hunt’s existence—too many people reported it, the phenomenon was too consistent, too observable. Instead, Christianity reinterpreted the Hunt’s nature and purpose. What had been Woden’s procession became Satan’s deception. The dead riders became demons. The Hunt’s purpose shifted from cosmic maintenance to temptation and spiritual assault.
Some Christian authorities claimed the Hunt was hallucination born of guilt—sinners seeing their fears manifested in storm. Others admitted its reality but attributed it to diabolic power. A few tried to Christianize it entirely, claiming the riders were souls in purgatory, that the Hunt was divine punishment for sin, that its leader was not Woden but some Christian entity.
But the older understanding persisted in folk practice. People continued recognizing the Hunt as pre-Christian phenomenon, leaving offerings to appease it, using old protections against it, interpreting its appearance according to traditional rather than Christian frameworks. The Church’s reinterpretation coexisted with older knowledge, both operating simultaneously in peasant consciousness.
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