Dictionary

hedge rider en · NOUN

Etymology

See hedge riding.

Meanings

1. A witch who practises hedge riding; a hedge witch.
   • Verses 147–165 of the Havamal are charms. Depending on which translation you follow, reciting the charm can cause either the hedge rider to show their true self and return home, or the rider's spirit to become separated from their physical body.[…]The hedge rider of ancient times flew to the otherworld to consult with spirits and gods for the purposes of magic or prophecy. The hedge rider of modern times will certainly do this among other things. 2012, Harmonia Saille, Pagan Portals: Hedge Riding, page 4:
   • Witches, who were usually homeless and gaunt and sometimes crippled, were said to be hedge-riders; they roamed the darkened roads by the edge of town and were reputed to live in two realities by straddling the hedges between the civilized safety of a small village and the real and imagined dangers from ghosts and demons who dwelled beyond. 2007, Doug Lennox, Now You Know Big Book of Answers, Dundurn Press, page 118:
   • 1883, Translation of Havamal, in Guðbrandur Vigfússon, Frederick York Powell (editors, translators), Corpvs Poeticvm Boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue, Volume 1: Eddic Poetry, Oxford University Press (Clarendon Press), page 27, 18. The tenth I know: If I see witches [hedge-riders] dancing in the air, I prevail so that they go astray and cannot find their own skins and their own haunts.

Forms