The Wild Hunt is a folklore motif in European folklore. Wild Hunts involve a chase led by a mythological figure escorted by a group of hunters that are either the souls of the dead or ghostly dogs. Seeing the Wild Hunt was thought to forebode some catastrophe such as war or plague, or at best the death of the one who witnessed it. The term "Wild Hunt" (Wilde Jagd) was popularized by Jacob Grimm in his treatise on Germanic mythology, Deutsche Mythologie, published in 1835.