The Wild Hunt

There is far more to the Winter Solstice season than most people think. My favourites is the Wild Hunt, when everyone should stay indoors and keep out of sight. This is because the Wild Hunt is scary and dangerous. When people are outside on a midwinter’s night, listening for the sounds of distant dogs barking, feeling icy winds, the arrival of frost and snow, distant shouting, yelling and horns, followed by a dark wave of hunters.
They’re full of shadowy things, undead, ghosts and entities, some riding on black horses. There are sinister dogs with red eyes. They’re part of a band of spirits and Others, who want blood. This blood exchange for the return of Spring and harvests. The Wild Hunt can kill livestock and may kill people if they’re outside. People who die during the winter solstice outside are victims of the Wild Hunt. Many victims of murder and the freezing cold are often found huddled up or face down, and this has been associated with the Wild Hunt. Victims of the Wild Hunt were all faced downwards or curled up froen to death or mauled to death. Animals have also perished in the phase of the Wild Hunt. Frozen petrified animals found on pavements, roads, fields and woods the morning after the winter solstice. 
It’s always tradition for people to leave out some offal to feed the spectral horses and scraps to feed the black dogs with red eyes. To celebrate the Wild Hunt, often men would dress up and fulfil their own hunts . People left food and some drink outside at night for the coming supernatural Hunters. 
It’s said that leading the Wild Hunt is the god Odin, riding on his eight legged horse Sleipner. Odin, the All-Father and warrior god, the wanderer, travels across the skies and delivers food and mead. Behind Him, the frightening Wild Hunt. 

The Wolf and the Fox

Foxes are often made out to be clever, sneaky and naughty in fairytales. Rarely are they good or friendly. Foxes are not evil as wolves in fairytales but they still get a bad reputation.

Here is a brief outline of the story “The Wolf and the Fox” by the Brothers Grimm.

A wolf and a fox lived together in a den. (It’s debatable if the wolf was a boy and fox a girl but in actual life, wolves and foxes can’t produce offspring together). The wolf is large and has huge sharp teeth. He’s the more aggressive and dominant. The fox is smaller and gentle and always bullied by the wolf. The wolf tells the fox to get some food, and the fox goes out to look for some scraps. She goes to a field and takes a small lamb. But after she brings the lamb home to the den, Wolf is not satisfied and wants another and something bigger. Wolf goes out to the field and tries stealing a full sized sheep, but he’s caught red handed by the farmer, who whacks him.
Another day, wolf demands that fox get some more food. The fox goes to a bakery and she takes some cakes and goes home carrying two cakes. Wolf is annoyed that it isn’t enough as he wants more cake and goes out by himself to get some. When he gets to the bakery, he makes a mess by knocking over buckets, stools and brooms. The baker sees wolf and hits him.
Then next time, fox has to go and find meat for herself and the wolf. She finds a cellar with meat stored there being chilled and salted. She takes it and goes home, but wolf is greedy and wants more meat. This time, fox and wolf go to the cellar together, but a butcher can hear them. Fox is able to get away as she’s quieter, smaller and sneaky but wolf is big and lumbersome. He gets caught and is killed.
Basically the story has shown that of the two, fox is clever, graceful and sneaky, is able to hide and not get caught. The wolf, being larger and more ferocious, is scarier but also clumsy because he’s uncouth.  

Princesses of stone

Here is my answer to the question "Is there a fairy tale about a princess turning into a statue?":

The term is “petrification” or petrified. Death by being turned to stone. Medusa was a gorgon monster in Greek myth, turned people into stone if they looked at her eyes. The ones she turned to stone were mainly heroes and warriors, attempting to kill her. They failed, except for Perseus. He managed to cut off her head and use it to turn the Kraken into stone. However, the Medusa’s eyes were still powerful after death so Perseus never looked at the eyes and kept it within a sack.
There are numerous stories of princesses and maidens turning to stone. There is Cornish fairytales of stone circle megaliths that were once dancing princesses. The Merry Maidens circle is “stone dance” in St. Buryan in Cornwall. The story goes that 19 maidens were petrified into stone by a god who was punishing them for dancing on Sunday.
Another is the Tregeseal East Stone Circle, or otherwise called “The Dancing Stones”. More women petrified to stone for dancing and offending a god. More stone circles that are petrified princesses are the Boskednan Stones or “Nine Maidens” as they’re also called.
(The Hurlers are stone circles in St. Cleer village in Cornwall. These were once men who were punished by a god and petrified into stones because they were hurling balls on a sunday. Other male stones are the Pipers of Bodmin Moor).
In real life plenty of maidens and princesses (along with other people and animals) were all turned into petrified forms in Pompeii, 79 CE, when Mount Vesuvius erupted. Image shows the famous two maidens petrified into statues after the hot ash fell from Mount Vesuvius in Pompeii.

By Rayne Belladonna

Source: Here