The mystical White Hart still roams free in the forest.
This was an image that I managed to capture during a sighting I had of
a white stag also known as a white hart. These are reported to be very
rare and it is believed there are only a handful of the animals in
Britain. White harts are also seen to be lucky omens, and anyone who
spots one is said to have a dose of good fortune just around the
corner. So good luck and best wishes to you all for spotting this one.
NeilB's Photography, Awaeryum, and 81 other people added this photo to their favorites.
View 20 more comments
ParaMike 62 months ago | reply
Wow. I've been searching for this one for ages. I've been hearing rumours it's in the Forest, but couldn't believe it until now. I'm gonna have to go out tomorrow now and try to find it!
guaora 62 months ago | reply
Splendid capture.nice shot
adrians_art 62 months ago | reply
Great nature scene Michael!
Outbj 62 months ago | reply
Superb capture! Beautiful stuff!
Šĥąý 3áđŷ .. bye bye :D [deleted] 62 months ago | reply
looks beauty ..!!
surfwax 60 months ago | reply
Magnificent shot for a magnificent animal; your depth of field is so fine...subject is tack-sharp, and the gentle lead-in/lead-out of blurry grass is a perfect frame to show off this beautiful critter...
Arth Wen Photography and Imagery. 60 months ago | reply
Magnificent!!
***Yuna*** 59 months ago | reply
Oh I love this one, even before I read about how rare they are. He just has a magical presence about him.
Your work has inspired me!!
You are INVITED to post it in...
trinchetto 59 months ago | reply
Very nice capture!
MadalenaPestana 55 months ago | reply
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called "White is White !" (Pls comment other pictures), and we'd love to have this added to the group!
drumbatter100 54 months ago | reply
Nice picture but I think your stag/hart is actually a Buck. Stag applies to Red deer and Sika. Hart applies to Red deer. Buck applies to Fallow deer and Roe deer. As the deer in the photo is a Fallow it should be retitled as white Buck.
Jim at Fotosyn 53 months ago | reply
wow. I've heard about one up in the Highlands too... and he's pretty safe. No one will shoot a white stag as it's bad luck.
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Seen on your photo stream. (?)
luis@ngel 47 months ago | reply
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called El Arca de Noé / Noah's Ark / L'Arca di Noè /Arche Noah / 诺, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
Ortega-- 44 months ago | reply
Magnífica. Te invito a agregar tu foto en:
AFOTO 'Asociación Fotográfica Orihuela'
mikescottnz-away for a momth 44 months ago | reply
Great capture of the buck.
The White Stag
The white stag is a familiar creature of myth and legend. Its origins are likely in the totemic period of early Indo-European society, particularly the northern societies of the Celts and pre-Indo-European cultures, whose subsistence was gained not only through agriculture, but through hunting. This dependence on deer may be seen in the zoomorphic Celtic god Cernunnos, depicted as being a man with the antlers of a deer.
The white stag in Celtic myth is an indicator that the Otherworld is near. It appears when one is transgressing a taboo--such as when Pwyll tresspassed into Arawn's hunting grounds, or when Peredur entered the Castle of Wonders in his second adventure at the house of the Lame King. It also appears as an impetus to quest--the white stag or hart often appears in the forests around King Arthur's court, sending the knights off on to adventure against gods and fairies.
(C. S. Lewis uses this device at both the beginning and end of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.2)
It also appears in French romance and lais as a similar indicator, such as in the lais of Marie de France, when Guigemar happens upon the strange sight of a white doe with antlers. He wounds the strange, hermaphroditic animal, which curses him to grow up and fall in love.
It is also an important element of Hungarian mythology, which believed that a great white stag led the brothers Hunor and Magar to settle in Scythia. Thus were established the Huns and Magyars.
Rena Sakai 43 months ago | reply
Thank you for sharing this photo. Maybe we'll all be lucky too! What rare luck to be just in the right time and place--and have your camera ready.
peter reeds artist 43 months ago | reply
An absolutely beautiful picture.
Rod Andrews 39 months ago | reply
What a superb response to a superb image, well done....but you did ask a question "hart" or "stag"?....well to be a pedant and a deer watcher in the New Forest for over 50 years I have to tell you that your image is of a male fallow deer. There are quite a few of the white coats living in the New Forest at any given time and in actual fact they are given the name of Fallow buck not Fallow stag or Fallow hart.
That makes no difference whatever to a great image though.
ParaMike 35 months ago | reply
SNAP!
mikescottnz-away for a momth 9 months ago | reply
The word hart is an old alternative word for "stag" (from Old English heorot, "deer" – compare with modern Dutch hert and Swedish/Norwegian hjort, also "deer").
Specifically, the word "hart" was used of a red deer stag more than five years old. In medieval hunting terms, a stag in its first year was called a "calf" or "calfe", in its second a "brocket", in its third a "spayed", "spade", or "spayard", in its fourth a "staggerd" or "staggard", and in its fifth a "stag", or a "great stag".[1][2] To be a "hart" was its fully mature state. A lord would want to hunt not just any deer, but a mature stag in good condition, partly for the extra meat and fat it would carry, but also for prestige. Hence a hart could be designated "a hart of grease", (a fat stag), "a hart of ten", (a stag with ten points on its antlers) or "a royal hart" (a stag which had been hunted by a royal personage).[3][4] A stag which was old enough to be hunted was called a "warrantable" stag.