In some instances, it was also believed that people's spirits could be pulled away during their sleep to join the cavalcade. People encountering the Hunt might also be abducted to the underworld or the fairy kingdom. Seeing the Wild Hunt was thought to presage some catastrophe such as war or plague, or at best the death of the one who witnessed it. The hunters are generally the souls of the dead or ghostly dogs, sometimes fairies, Valkyries, or elves.

The leader of the hunt is often a named figure associated with Odin in Germanic legends, but may variously be a historical or legendary figure like Theodoric the Great, the Danish king Valdemar Atterdag, the Welsh psychopomp Gwyn ap Nudd, biblical figures such as Herod, Cain, Gabriel, or the Devil, or an unidentified lost soul or spirit either male or female. Wild Hunts typically involve a 'soul-raving' chase led by a mythological figure escorted by a ghostly or supernatural group of hunters passing in wild pursuit.

The Wild Hunt is a folklore motif (Motif E501 in Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature) that historically occurs in the folklore of various northern European cultures. Asgårdsreien (1872) by Peter Nicolai Arbo

A dogs life witcher 3