The ewiger Jäger (eternal hunter; der ewige Jäger) is a local variant of the ghostly wild huntsman (German wilder Jäger) found in German, Belgian, and American folklore.
According to the Brothers Grimm in their Deutsche Sagen (German folktales), the ewiger Jäger once was encountered by Count Eberhard of Württemberg when he once was out for a hunt in the woods. After hearing a loud swooshing and noise like from a huntsman, Count Eberhard dismounted his steed and asked the ghost whether it wanted to do him harm.The ghostly hunter denied this and told the Count that he was a human just like him, formerly having been a lord. When he still was a lord he found such pleasure in hunting that he pleaded to God to let him hunt eternally until Judgement Day. His wish was answered, much to his chagrin, and ever since the ewiger Jäger had to chase the very same deer for five and a half centuries already before meeting Count Eberhard.He further told the Count that his house and nobility were still undisclosed. Upon hearing this Count Eberhard requested the huntsman to show his face to him to see whether he might be able to identify him. The face was hardly as big as a fist, though, withered like a turnip and wrinkled like a mushroom.After that the ghostly huntsman continued chasing his deer and the Count returned home to his land.[1]
Ludwig Bechstein tells the same legend, only giving some additional detail. According to him, the ewiger Jäger appears as a gnarled little man dressed in green. In Swabia, where the meeting with the Count of Württemberg took place, this ghost is also known as Weltsjäger or rather in Swabian diminutive as Weltschjägerle (both: (little) world hunter) since he has to chase and run around the whole world. He was punished with eternal hunt for going for the hunt on a Sunday thus breaking Sunday rest. After this encounter, the Count was horror-stricken and never again went hunting.[2]
Bechstein also tells a legend from Belgium about the eternal hunter according to which near Wijnendale Castle in Flanders there dwelled a pious and hardworking farmer who had an only son. This son did not care for home and fields but rather preferred to go hunting in the woods, not caring for his father's pleas and threats.When the old father lay on his deathbed, feeling his end draw near, he sent for his son to say farewell and give him a warning. The son, hearing his dying father's request, decided to take his gun, whistle for his hounds, and go into the woods instead. Hearing about this, the old man raised his hands in desperation, cursing his son with the word: "So go hunting, hunting, hunting for all eternity – for all eternity –" before dropping back dead.
Ever since that day the cursed son never returned home again, instead being heard in the woods shouting "Jakko! Jakko! Jakko!", screeching like a bird of prey or barking like a dog until Judgement day if not even longer. He haunted the woods around Wijnendale until they were cut down, since then retreating to still forested heights.[3]
In the United States, the ewiger Jäger was introduced by German immigrants in Pennsylvania who later were called Pennsylvania Dutch. There are a variety of spellings in Pennsylvania Dutch dialect, all of which mean "(the) eternal hunter": (Der) Ewich Yaeger,[4] Ewichyeager,[5] (der[6]) Eewich Yeager,[7] der Ewige Jaeger,[8] Ewicher Yeeger,[9] (Dar) Ewich Jaejer,[10] Avich Yeager,[11] and (Der) Aivich Yaeger.[12]
The Canada goose is called Awicher Yager, i.e. eternal hunter, because of its sounds which, when there is a whole swarm travelling at night, might sound like a pack of dogs baying in the sky. In Pine Grove, the baying of dogs in the sky is associated with flocks of loons.
In Pine Grove, the Blue Mountain is believed to be haunted by Dar Ewich Jaejer or Ewige Jaeger. When a phantom pack of hounds is heard on a quiet night in the fall hunting season, then people look up to the sky and say that the eternal hunter is riding again. He is said to have been a fox hunter long ago who cursed and swore an oath to catch a certain fox even if he had to chase the animal into eternity. Thus he continues chasing the fox accompanied by barking dogs long after his death, returning from the other world to the Blue Mountain about thirty times a year. The hunter is doomed to chase the fox without ever catching it.
In Tremont township, '’Der Aivich Yaeger'’ can be seen gliding through the skies at certain times, particularly in autumn. He appears a man dressed in a hunter's attire and can be heard blowing his hunter's horn to his dogs.
In Oley Township, the Ewichyeager is known. He hunts on the hills surrounding Oley Valley and is sometimes thought to be someone from the Keim family line of Pennsylvania Dutch who, due to his fondness for hunting, decided to use Native American magic and Braucherei to go hunting eternally.[13]
The eternal hunter hunts on South Mountain at night where he can be heard calling for his pack of dogs. Those encountering him at night will either be torn to bits his dogs or spirited away, never to be seen again. The dogs are said to be strange black animals bearing white teeth. They won't attack when paralyzed by being blinded with lantern light.[14]
In Blue Mountain (Pennsylvania German Blobarrick), the Ewicher Yeeger became known when after the foundation of Lynn Township in 1732 in the area called Allemaengel (all deficiencies) by the Pennsylvania German settlers there was once a severe drought accompanied by crop failure and the disappearance of all game animals. Autumn had arrived already and the desperately praying settlers faced a fate of starvation and illness when one night a booming voice and barking of a pack of hounds were heard, coming seemingly nowhere and everywhere at once, appearing from time to time. The frightened settlers left their homes only at dawn to find all kinds of game animals had returned and starvation was warded off since hunting hat become possible again. Thus Ewicher Yeeger had saved the German settlers from starvation and certain death. Still the barking and howling pack of Ewicher Yeeger can be heard while the wild huntsman assures that the Blue Mountain remains bountiful.[15]
In Schuylkill County, there is a similar tale about a drought accompanied by crop failure and lack of game animals. One of the settlers, a single man without wife or children, decided to take his pack of hunting dogs and his gun, setting out to find meat to feed everyone, vowing not to return until he had gathered enough for the whole village to survive winter. He did not return, though. Even after death Der Ewich Yaeger is bound to his vow. In cold October nights, in the woods the pack of dogs can be heard baying and the huntsman can be seen continuing his hunt up in the mountains.[16]
Another variant from Blue Mountain has it that the streams dried out as well after a long dry summer in a drought and, of course, the game animals went missing. One old man decided to take his dogs and chase the deer back, vowing that he would do so eternally even through the sky, if necessary, to save his village. A few days later the deer returned but the hunter never did. He still continues on travelling through the air as the Avich Yeager accompanied by barking hounds, driving away all deer he encounters, as has occurred in Paradise Valley in August 1949.
The Ewich Yaeger is further said to have set out to return deer and also rabbits to Pine Grove, hunting through the sky forever since, and can be heard in autumn nights as noises, barking, and shotgun fire in the sky.
In Lebanon County, der Eewich Yeager is associated with the Cornwall Iron Furnace, and his story is told by George Henry Boker in the poem "The Legend of the Hounds". Der Eewich Yeager is said to have been the cruel ironmaster of the furnace in life.[17]
The ironmaster loved whiskey, women, and the fox hunt, but he treated his workers, mistresses and hounds with violence, discarding them at a whim.[18] The only exception to this was the leader of the pack of hounds and the ironmaster's constant companion, called Flora according to the poem, which was mistreated all the same but largely spared due to her being unmatched in chasing her prey and once even saving her drunken master's life in a cold snowy winter night.[19]
This changed when the ironmaster had invited influential guests for hunting but his pack of hounds had no success. Infuriated, the ironmaster rode over his dogs and whipped them, not even sparing Flora. Then he took his hounds and drove all forty of them into the burning furnace, sparing Flora only.[20] Flora then started growling and roaring and baring her fangs at her irate master who then took her when she was peaceful again and threw her into the furnace with his own hand where the dog cried out "God, God, God!” [21]
When coming to his senses, the ironmaster was overcome with grief at the loss of Flora, drinking, sitting on his bed all day and slowly wasting away.[22] One evening then, the ironmaster saw his burning hounds return from the furnace, led by Flora, chasing him around his own home until he dropped dead, achieving their revenge.[23]
Another version has it that the pack leader was called Singing Ann, the ironmaster's guests were friends from Philadelphia, and the ironmaster became repentant while on deathbed in March 1790, calling for Singing Ann's return. Ever since then he travels through the nightly skies as der Ewige Jaeger, from where the barking and yelping of hounds, the stomping of horses' hooves, and the ironmaster's muffled commands still can be heard.[24]