What happened
The first mention of Herne the Hunter comes from Shakespeare. In “The Merry Wives of Windsor” (c. 1597), Mistress Page recalls “an old tale”: Herne, once a keeper in Windsor Forest, walks around an oak at still midnight all winter long with great ragged horns on his head, blasts the tree, makes the cattle yield blood instead of milk and shakes a chain. Later writers gave him a biography: in 1792 Samuel Ireland wrote that Herne hanged himself on the tree after an offense that cost him his post. “Herne's Oak” became a sight of the park – the tree regarded as the true one was felled in 1796, another candidate blew down in 1863, and the present oak was planted when the avenue was replanted in 1906. In the 20th century there were reports of a figure in the park and of a hunting horn and baying hounds.
Witnesses
The first source is William Shakespeare (c. 1597); later descriptions by Samuel Ireland (1792) and others. Twentieth-century sightings are anonymous.
Explanations and hypotheses
It is unknown whether Shakespeare recorded a local tale or invented it – the 1602 quarto spells the name “Horne” and suggests the ghost was made up to frighten children. James Halliwell-Phillipps linked the figure to Richard Horne, a poacher in the reign of Henry VIII. In the 20th century Margaret Murray and others saw Herne as an echo of the Celtic horned god Cernunnos, but there is no evidence for this in Britain; the name is more easily derived from Old English “hyrne” (horn). Herne is also associated with the Wild Hunt and has become an icon of modern pop culture and neopaganism.
Legend A story handed down through generations – it can be neither confirmed nor disproved.
Sources
- Royal Collection Trust – Alexander Cozens, Herne's Oak (Shakespeare in the Royal Library)
- Royal Collection Trust – Herne's Oak, Windsor Park (attrib. Samuel Ireland, c. 1799)
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