In the Norwegian material, figures other than Odin who have been named as leaders of the hunt include Lussi, sometimes identified as Adam's first wife, and Guro Rysserova, a supernatural female being with a mysterious male companion.

[1] The folklorist Christine N. F. Eike has argued that the motif might have its origin in European traditions where young, unmarried men wear masks and move in processions during Christmastide.

[3] In accordance with writers like Adam Oehlenschläger and N. F. S. Grundtvig, they viewed their mythological paintings as ethical allegories and not as representations of real deities.

[4] In modern culture, the Wild Hunt had been popularized by Jacob Grimm, who in Deutsche Mythologie (1835) presented it as a pagan element that survived into Christian times, where it had been adapted into a demonic phenomenon.

Behind the immediate frontline, the hunt is led by the god Thor, who towers above the rest in his chariot pulled by two goats, raising his war hammer and wearing a crown.

Most directly, it is based on Johan Sebastian Welhaven's poem Asgaardsreien, with the opening "Through the nightly air stampedes a train of frothing black horses".

The painting's compositional arrangement, with its diagonal movements, is close to Arbo's Kunstakademie Düsseldorf work Saint Olav at the Battle of Stiklestad (1859).

[9] The Wild Hunt of Odin was first shown in public at Copenhagen's Nordic Exhibition of 1872 [da], where it was presented along with Thor's Fight with the Giants by Winge.