Herla or King Herla () is a legendary leader of the mythical Germanic Wild Hunt and the name from which the Old French term Herlequin may have been derived. Herla often has been identified as Woden and in the writings of the twelfth-century writer Walter Map, he is portrayed as a legendary king of the Britons who became the leader of the Wild Hunt after a visit to the Otherworld, only to return some three hundred years later, after the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain. Map's tale occurs in two versions in his De nugis curialium. The first and longer account, found in section 1.12, provides far more detail; it tells of Herla's encounter with an otherworldly being, his journey to the latter's homeland, his transformation into the leader of the Hunt after his return to the human realm, and, finally, the disappearance of Herla and his band during the first year of the reign of Henry II of England (a synopsis of this longer version appears below). The second account, found in section 4.13, includes only the ending of the earlier version. Herla is not mentioned in the second account by name; instead, Map refers to the entire host as "the troop of Herlethingus" (familia Herlethingi). Origins and etymology King Herla is a modernisation of an Old English form reconstructed as *Her(e)la Cyning, a figure that usually is said to be Woden in his guise as leader of the Germanic Wild Hunt and thus the name is thought to be related to the French Harlequin (variant form of Herlequin, Hellequin), the leader of the Wild Hunt in Old French tradition. The same figure in Germanic paganism was described first by Tacitus in terms of the Harii who fought at night taking the appearance of an army of ghosts. The later Germanic tribe of the Heruli are also related to Herla. Also, King Herla possibly is related to the German Erlking (best known from Goethe's ballad Erlkönig). Synopsis of the Walter Map story Herla, a king of the Britons, meets with an unnamed dwarven king with a great, red beard and goat's hooves, who is mounted on a goat. They make a pact: if the latter attends Herla's wedding, Herla will reciprocate precisely one year later. On the day of Herla's marriage, the dwarf king attends with a vast host, bringing gifts and provisions. The dwarf king's followers attend to the