“No one bird known to Americans is so entangled with whatever witchcraft belongs to birds as is the raven, yet little of it is American besides Poe’s melodramatic mummery, whose raven was a borrowed piece of theatrical property. The shrewd people of this country pay little attention to signs and portents, yet some survive among us, for the extravagant notions popularly held as to the sagacity of our crow, with its “courts” and “consultations,” are no doubt traceable in some measure to the bird’s history in Old World superstition.

“In Europe no bird, save possibly the cuckoo, is so laden with legends and superstitious veneration as the raven, chiefly, however, in the North, where it is not only most numerous and noticeable but seems to fit better than in the gladsome South. To the rough, virile Baltic man, or to the Himalayan mountaineer, worshipping force, careless of beauty, this sable bird of hard endurance, challenging cry and powerful wing, the “ravener,” tearer, was an admirable creature; while to the more esthetic dweller by the Mediterranean or on Ægean shores such qualities were repulsive, and the raven became a reminder of winter, when alone it was seen in the South, and of the savage forests and hated barbarians whence it came. Much the same antithesis belongs to this bird and its relatives in the minds of Orientals. To understand the impression the raven made on primitive men, and the [Ingersol, pg. 155] symbolism and dread that have grown up about it, one must have some knowledge of the real Corvus corax.

The Raven Is the King of the Birds

“The raven is the largest member of the ornithological family Corvidæ, measuring two feet from beak to tail-tip. It is everywhere black, with steel-blue and purplish reflections, and is distinguished from its equally black cousins, the crows, by its stouter beak, somewhat hooked at the tip, and especially by the elongated and pointed feathers on the throat. It is powerful in flight, and is noted for performing queer antics in the air. Judged by its anatomy it stands high in the scale of classification, so that some ornithologists, considering also its intellect, have put it quite at the top of the scale—made it the true King of Birds. In its northern home this species is to be found right around the world, inhabiting Asia and Europe as far south as the great ridge of mountains that extends from Spain to Siberia, and also living in Asia Minor and Syria. It is native to all North America, where no arctic island is too remote to be visited by it in summer. Most of the ravens fly southward in winter from polar latitudes to kindlier regions, but those that stay in the far north become doubly conspicuous in a wilderness of snow, for they do not turn white in winter as do many arctic residents; therefore Goldsmith wasted much philosophy in explaining in his Animated Nature why they “become white.” The raven’s ordinary call-note is well enough described by the words “croak” and “caw,” but it has many variations. Nuttall quotes Porphyrius as declaring that no less than 64 different intonations of the raven’s cries were distinguished by the soothsayers of his day, and given appropriate significance. Some notes are indescribably queer.

“Ravens have almost disappeared from thickly settled [Ingersol, pg. 156] regions, in striking contrast to their near relatives the crows, rooks, choughs, magpies, jackdaws, and various related species in the Old World, which thrive and grow tame in the company of civilized humanity. Few pairs of ravens remain in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, except on the wilder parts of the Maine coast and about Lake Superior.

Charles Dickens and His Pet Raven

“Readers of Charles Dickens’s novels will recall the impish specimen “Grip” that Barnaby Rudge used to carry about with him, and which became his fellow-prisoner in jail—and served him right, for he was always declaring ‘I’m a devil!’

“This raven was modelled after an actual pet, named “Grip,” in the family of the novelist when he was writing Barnaby Rudge in 1841. It died in July of that year, and its body passed into the possession of Dr. R. T. Judd, an English collector of Dickens’ material. In 1922 this collection, including the stuffed skin of Grip, and its former cage, labelled with its owner’s name, was offered for sale at the Anderson Galleries in New York. It appears from accompanying letters that as the novel was originally written it contained no reference to the bird; but before the manuscript was completed it occurred to Mr. Dickens that he could make good use of the mischievous creature in the story, as is revealed in a letter to George Cattermole, dated January 28, 1841.

“The raven may not only be tamed to the point of domestication, but will learn to speak a few words. Goldsmith asserted, apparently from experience, that it not only would speak but could “sing like a man.” Like all its thievish tribe it loves to pick up and hide objects that attract its quick eye, especially if they are bright, like a silver spoon or a bit of jewelry; and this acquisitive [Ingersol, pg. 157] disposition has more than once involved in serious misfortune servants accused of purloining lost articles, as happened in the case of the Jackdaw of Rheims.

“The tradition on which Barham’s Ingoldsby Legend is embroidered is a very old one, the earliest statement of which, probably, is that in Mignie’s Patrologia Latinia, compiled by a monk of Clairvaux. The narrative is that of an incident in the time of Frederick Barbarossa (12th century) when the monastery of Corvey was ruled by a prince-bishop named Conrad. One day he left his episcopal ring lying on the dining-table, and it disappeared. The bishop blamed the servants and suspected his guests, and finally issued a decree of excommunication toward any one who had stolen it. Thereupon the bishop’s pet jackdaw ‘began to sicken little by little, to loathe his food, to cease more and more from his droll croakings and irrational follies whereby he was wont to delight the minds of fools who neglect to fear God.’

“At this dreadful stage it occurred to some bright genius that this portentous change in the bird was the effect of the curse, and that it was the sought-for thief. Its nest was searched, the precious ring was found, the curse was taken off, and the jackdaw recovered its plumage and good spirits.

“Where ravens can get other food plentifully they seldom attack living animals. Bendire frequently saw them feeding among his chickens without harming them, yet undoubtedly they are occasionally guilty in our West of killing young lambs, game-birds, and poultry, sins of which they are much accused in Europe. Certainly they rob wild birds of eggs and fledglings, but these evil deeds are done mainly in spring, in providing their own nestlings with soft food. During most of the year the food of the raven consists of carrion, grasshoppers, worms, mussels and other shellfish (the larger kinds of which they lift high in the air and then drop to break their shells), and of ground-squirrels and young rabbits when they can get hold of them. [Ingersol, pg. 158]

“When a raven alights on a dead animal its first act is to pluck out the eyes. One of the barbarities in the ancient East was to throw the bodies of executed criminals out to be devoured by beasts and birds of prey—a custom of which the Parsee Towers of Silence is a modified relic. The popular knowledge of this gave great force to Solomon’s warning (Proverbs xxx, 17): ‘The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out’—that is, so bad a boy would end on the gallows.

“Although ravens were regarded by the ancient Zoroastrians as ‘pure,’ because they were considered necessary to remove pollution from the face of the earth, the Jews classed this creature as ‘unclean’ for the same reason—it ate carrion. In view of this the Biblical legend that the Prophet Elijah, when he hid by the brook Kerith from the wrath of Ahab, was fed by ravens at command of the Lord, is so unnatural that commentators have done their best to explain it away. To this day the Moors regard ravens as belonging to Satan. In Chapter V of the Koran, where the killing of Cain by his brother is described, we read: “And God sent a raven which scratched the earth to show him how he should hide the shame [that is, the corpse] of his brother, and he said ‘Woe is me! am I to be like this raven?’ … and he became one of those who repent.” This is from Sale’s edition, Philadelphia, 1868; and the editor adds a note that this legend was derived from the Jews, but that in their version the raven appears not to Cain but to Adam, who thereupon buried Abel.

“That a bird black as night and its mysteries, a familiar of the lightning-riven pine and the storm-beaten crag, [IIngersol, pg. 159] a ghoulish attendant of battling men and feasting on their slain, muttering strange soliloquies, and diabolically cunning withal—that such a creature should have appealed to the rough mariners of the North is far from surprising. The supreme Norse god was Odin, an impersonation of force and intellect—an apotheosis, indeed, of the Viking himself; and his ministers were two ravens, Hugin and Munin, i.e., Reflection and Memory. “They sit upon his shoulders and whisper in his ears,” says history. “He sends them out at daybreak to fly over the world, and they come back at eve, toward meal-time.” Hence it is that Odin knows so much, and is called Rafnagud, Raven-god. Most solicitously does Odin express himself about these ministers in Grunner’s lay in the Elder Edda:

“Again, in Odin’s fierce Raven Song, Hugin goes ‘to explore the heavens.’

“Jupiter’s two eagles, sent east and west, will be recalled by readers of classic tales.

Ravens on the Banners of the Vikings

“As the eagle of Jove became the standard of the Roman legions, so Odin’s bird was inscribed on the shields and the banners of his warrior sons. You may see such banners illustrated in the Bayeux tapestry. The Dane called his standard landeyda (land-waster), and had faith in its miraculous virtues. The original ensign, that is, the one brought to England by the first invaders, is described in St. Neot’s biographical Chronicles (9th century). In 878, it records, a wild Danish rover [Ingersol, pg. 160] named Hubba came with twenty-three ships on a raid into Devon: but the people rose and killed or drove away all the vikings.

The British Assume the Banner of the Raven

“’And there got they [that is, the Devon men] no small spoil, wherein they took, moreover, that banner which men call the Raven. For they say that the three sisters of Ingwar and Hubba, the daughters, sooth to say, of Lodbrock, wove that banner, and made it all wholly ready between morn and night of a single day. They say, too, that in every fight wherein that flag went before them, if they were to win the raven in the midst thereof seemed to flutter, as if it were alive, but were their doom to be worsted, then it would droop, still and lifeless.’

“Britain came to know well that portentous flag—

as Thomson laments.

“Finally Harold hurled t’e power of Canute from England’s shores forever, and Tennyson sings Harold’s paean:

“’The crow and the raven,’ MacBain^[71] announces, ‘are constantly connected in the Northern mythologies with battle-deities. ‘How is it with you, Ravens?’ says the Norse Raven Song. ‘Whence are you come with gory beak at the dawning of the day…. You lodged last [Ingersol, pg. 161] night, I ween, where ye knew the corses were lying.’ The ravens also assist and protect heroes both in Irish and Norse myth. It was a lucky sign if a raven followed a warrior.”

Guides for Norse & Other Sailors

“But the bold Norse sailors made a more practical use also of this knowing bird, for in those days, before the compass, they used to take ravens with them in their adventurous voyages on the fog-bound northern seas, and trust the birds to show them the way back to land. A notable instance was Floki’s voyage to Iceland in 864 A. D., a few years after that island’s discovery; and the French historian Mallet^[30] narrates it thus:

‘We are told that Floki, previous to setting out on his expedition, performed a great sacrifice, and having consecrated three ravens to the gods took them with him to guide him on his voyage. After touching at the Shetland and Faroë islands he steered northwest, and when he was fairly out at sea, let loose one of his ravens, which, after rising to a considerable elevation, directed its flight to the land they had quitted…. The second bird, after being some time on the wing, returned to the ship, a sign that the land was too far distant to be descried even by a raven hovering in the sky. Floki therefore continued his course, and shortly afterwards let loose his third raven, which he followed in its flight until he reached the eastern coast of Iceland.’

“This is a somewhat poetic account, I imagine, of what perhaps was a more prosaic custom of seamanship, for doubtless it was usual at that time to carry several birds on such voyages, and to let them fly from time to time that they might learn and indicate to the voyagers whether land was near, and in what direction, as did old Captain Noah, master of the good ship Ark. Berthold 162Lauffer^[52] treats of this point with his customary thoroughness in his pamphlet Bird Divination:

“Indian Hindoo navigators kept birds on board ship for the purpose of despatching them in search of land. In the Baveru-Jataka it is “a crow serving to direct navigators in the four quarters”…. Pliny relates that the seafarers of Taprobane (Ceylon) did not observe the stars for the purpose of navigation, but carried birds out to sea, which they sent off from time to time and then followed the course of the birds’ flying in the direction of the land. The connection of this practice with that described in the Babylonian and Hebraic traditions of the deluge was long ago recognized…. When the people of Thera, an island in the Ægean Sea emigrated to Libya, ravens flew along with them ahead of the ships to show the way. According to Justin … it was by the flight of birds that the Gauls who invaded Illyricum were guided. Emperor Jimmu of Japan (7th century) engaged in a war expedition and marched under the guidance of a gold-colored raven.

Ravens Led Alexander the Great

“Mr. Lauffer might have added that Callisthenes relates that two heaven-sent ravens led the expedition of Alexander across the trackless desert from the Mediterranean coast to the oasis of Ammon (Siwah), recalling stragglers now and then by hoarse croaking.

“The folklore of northern Europe is full of the cunning and exploits of this bird and its congeners, which it would be a weary task to disentangle from pure myth. In Germany there is, or was, a stone gibbet called, with gruesome memories, Ravenstone, to which Byron alludes in Werner—

“We read that the old Welsh king Owein, son of Urien, had in his army three hundred doughty ravens, constituting an irresistible force; perhaps they were only human [Ingersol, pg, 163] ‘shock’ troops who bore this device on their targes.

Irish Cuchulain Had Ravens

“Cuchulain, the savage hero of Irish fables, had, like Odin, two magic ravens that advised him of the approach of foes.

Old-fashioned Germans believe that Frederick I (Barbarossa) is sleeping under Raven’s Hill at Kaiserlauten, ready to come forth in the last emergency of his country. There in his grotto-palace a shepherd found him sleeping. Barbarossa awoke and asked: ‘Are the ravens still flying around the hill?’ The shepherd answered that they were. ‘Then,’ sighed the king, “I must sleep another hundred years.”

The Legendery King Arthur Shifted into a Raven

“Waterton^[73] tells us that a tradition was once current throughout the whole of Great Britain that King Arthur was changed into a raven (some say a chough) by the art of witchcraft; and that in due time he would be restored to human form, and return with crown and sceptre. In Brittany, where Arthur and his knights are much more real than even in Cornwall, the sailor-peasants will assure you that he was buried on the little isle of Avalon, just off the foreshore of Tregastel, but they will add very seriously that he is not dead. If you inquire how that can be, they will explain that the great king was conveyed thither magically by Morgan le Fay, and he and she dwell there in an underground palace.

Who Was Morgan le Fay?

‘They are invisible now to all human eyes, and when Arthur wants to go out into the air his companion turns him into a raven; and perchance, in proof, your boatman may point your gaze toward a real raven sitting on the rocks of the islet.

Ravens and Monk Tales

“Ravens figure in many monkish legends, too, usually in a beneficent attitude, in remembrance of their friendly offices toward Elijah. Saint Cuthbert and several lesser saints and hermits were fed by these or similar birds. 164One hermit subsisted many years on a daily ration of half a loaf of bread brought him by a raven, and one time, when another saint visited him, the bird provided a whole loaf! Fish was frequently brought: and once when a certain eremite was ill, the bird furnished the fish already cooked, and fed it to the patient bit by bit. Miss Walker^[39] shows that as a companion of saints this bird has had a wide and beneficent experience, which may be set against the more conspicuous pages of misdeeds in his highly variegated record. Thus we learn that St. Benedict’s raven saved his life by bearing away the poisoned loaf sent to this saint by a jealous priest. “After his torture and death at Saragossa, when the body of St. Vincent was thrown to the wild beasts it was rescued by ravens and borne to his brothers at Valencia, where it reposed in a tomb till the Christians of that place were expelled by the Moors. The remains of the saint were … again placed in a tomb [at Cape St. Vincent] to be guarded forever more by the faithful ravens.” Have you doubts about this story? Go to that wild headland, where Portugal sets a firm foot against the Atlantic, watch the ravens hovering above it, and be convinced! And to many other holy men did these noble birds render substantial service—to St. Meinrad especially, as is affirmed by no less an authority than the great Jerome.

“In some parts of Germany,” Miss Walker records, “these birds are believed to hold the souls of the damned, while in other sections wicked priests only are supposed to be so re-incarnated. In Sweden the ravens croaking at night in the swamps are said to be the ghosts of murdered persons who have been denied Christian burial.” A local and humorous touch is given to this conception by the Irish in Kerry, who allege that the rooks there 165are the ghosts of bad old landlords, because they steal vegetables from the peasants’ gardens—“Always robbin’ the poor!”

This eerie feeling is of long descent. The supreme war-goddess of the Gaels, as Squire^[74] explains, was Morrigu, the Red Woman or war-goddess, who figures in the adventures of Cuchulain, and whose favorite disguise was to change herself into a carrion-crow, the “hoodie-crow” of the Scotch. She had assistants who revelled among the slain on a battlefield. “These grim creatures of the savage mind had immense vitality … indeed, they may be said to survive still in the superstitious dislike and suspicion shown in all Keltic-speaking countries for their avatar—the hoodie crow.”

“In Pennant’s Tour in Scotland (1771) is described a curious ceremony in which offerings were made by Scottish herdsmen to the hooded crow, eagle and other enemies of sheep to induce them to spare the flocks. A Morayshire saying in old times ran thus:

“(The guil, Swann explains, is an obnoxious weed, the Gordon refers to the thieving propensities of a neighboring clan, and the crow killed lambs and annoyed sickly sheep.) “It is interesting,” says Wentz,^[62] “to observe that this Irish war-goddess Morrigu, the bodb or babd, … has survived to our own day in the fairy-lore of the chief Celtic countries. In Ireland the survival in the popular and still almost general belief among the peasantry that the fairies often exercise their magical powers under the form of royston crows; and for this reason these birds are always greatly dreaded and 166avoided. The resting of one of them on a peasant’s cottage may signify many things, but often it means the death of one of the family or some great misfortune, the bird in such case playing the part of a bean-sidhe (banshee).” In the western Highlands “the hoody crow plays the same rôle; and in Brittany fairies assume the form of the magpie.”

“Under the influence of Christian teaching Odin gradually became identified throughout northern Europe with Satan: so the raven and all the Corvidae are now “Devil’s birds” in the folklore of the North. Even the magpie is said to have devils’ blood in its tongue, and its chattering is ominous of evil, requiring various rustic charms to counteract its harm—in fact, if the farmer-folk are correctly informed, virtually all the birds of this family was naturally tainted with deviltry. It is not surprising then to hear that European crows go down to hell once every year, when they must appear before Old Nick and give him a tribute of feathers. The time of this visit coincides with their moulting-season in midsummer, when the crows retire and remain inconspicuous and silent for a time—so maybe it’s true!

An extraordinary survival of this last notion—unless it be original—is found among the negroes of some of our Southern States, who say that the “jaybird” (bluejay) is never to be seen on Friday, because on that day he is carrying sticks to the Devil in hell; that in general this bird is the Devil’s messenger and spy; and that the reason he is so gay and noisy on Saturday is that he is so glad to get back to earth. An old Georgia darky explained the matter a follows:

“Some folks say Br’er Jay takes a piece er wood, des a splinter, down to de bad Place ev’y Friday fer ter help out 167Mister Devil, so’s to let him ’n’ his wife, ole Aunty Squatty, have good kindlin’ wood all de time…. But some folks tell de tale ’nother way. Dey say he make dat trip ever’ Friday ter tote down des a grit er dirt. He make de trip sho’. Ever’body knows dat. But for what he goes folks tells diffunt tales. You sho’ly can’t see a jay bird in dis worl’ on Friday fum twelve o’clock twel three—hit takes ’em des dat long ter make de trip…. Some folks say Bre’r Jay and all his fambly, his folks, his cousins, and his kin, does go dat way and d’rection, ev’y one totin’ dey grain o’ sand in der bill an’ drappin’ hit in—des one teeny weeny grit—wid de good hopes er fillin’ up dat awful place.”^[2]

“Louisiana negroes are of the opinion that the jay is condemned to this weekly trip as a punishment for misbehavior at Christ’s crucifixion, but what dreadful deed he did has been forgotten. Every reader of “Uncle Remus,” or of the stories of Mrs. Ruth McEnery Stuart, Mr. Harry Stillwell Edwards, and other Southern writers, knows how largely the “jaybird” figures in the plantation-tales of the negroes, especially of the coastal districts, where the bluejay is one of the most conspicuous and interesting of resident birds.

“The coming of Christianity, as has been said, swept away the images of Odin and of his Pagan familiars Hugin and Munin out of both Teutonic and Keltic Europe, but it did not sweep away the birds themselves, nor discolor their sable wings, nor silence the baleful croak; and the impression left by the old tales lingered long in the minds of the people. To the horror of the raven and his kind among the natives of Britain, as a symbol of the northern marauders from whom they had so long suffered, was now added the anathema of pious missionaries who condemned everything pagan as diabolic, and all things black—except their own robes—as typifying the powers of darkness. Truly, remarked 168St. Ambrose, all shamelessness and sin are dark and gloomy, and feed on the dead like the crow. A Chinese epithet for the raven is “Mongol’s coffin.”

The people were sincere enough in this, for behind them was not only the Devil-fearing superstition of the Middle Ages but a long line of parent myths and folklore that made the bird’s reputation as black as its plumage, and added to this was the new and terrifying idea of prophecy. You get a hint of the feeling in Gower’s Confessio Amantis:

“In Greece and Italy ravens were sacred to Apollo, the great patron of augurs, who in a pet turned this bird from white to black—and an ill turn it was, for black feathers make black birds; and in this blackness of coat lies, in my opinion, the root of their sinister repute.

“The  ‘jumbie-bird,’ or ‘big witch,’  of the West Indian region, for example, is the dead-black ani, a kind of cuckoo. Spenser speaks of “the hoarse night-raven, trompe of doleful dreer,” but his “night-raven” was not a raven at all, but the bittern.

“It is only in an earlier day and under a brighter sky that we find these corvine prophets taking a more cheerful view of the future. Of course they are among the ‘rain-birds’:

So the “foresight of a raven’

became proverbial, as [Ingersol, pg. 169] Waterton^[73] illustrates by an anecdote:

‘Good farmer Muckdrag’s wife, while jogging on with eggs to market, knew there was mischief brewing as soon as she had heard a raven croak on the unlucky side of the road:

 

Raven – Jacki Kellum Watercolor – Sold

In her book Bird Legend and Life, Margaret Walker said the following about the raven:

“To one with mind open to rural charm, this picturesque bird, solemnly stalking about the fields, or majestically flapping his way to the treetops, is as much a part of the landscape as the fields themselves, or the trees upon their borders; and possess an interest different from that of any other creature of the feathered race. …his superior intelligence, great dignity and general air of mstery inspire confidence in his abilities in that line. …

“In the early morning light the worthy ..[ravens] go forth to-day in quest of news of interest to their clan…and when slanting beams call forth the vesper songs of more tuneful birds, they return, [Walker pg. 174] followed by long lines of other crows, to their usual haunts on the borders of the marshes. …they arrive from all directions, till what must be the whole tribe is gathered together–a united family–for the night’s repose,

“As there in the treetops in the early evening, in convention assembled, they discuss important affairs, who can doubt that certain ones of their number are recognized as leaders, and that they have some form of government among themselves? One after another delivers himself of a harangue, then the whole assemblage joins in noisy applause–or is it disapproval? At other times sociability seems to be th sole object of the gathering.

“As one old crow, more meditative than the rest, at the close of the conclave always betakes himself to the same perch, the lonely upthrust shaft of a lightning-shattered tree on the hillisde, we decide that here is old Munin, who has selected this perch as one favorable to meditation–a place where he may ponder undisturbed over the occurrences of the day.

“While the chief charm of the crow is his intelligence [Walker, pg. 175] his dignity also claims our attention. Who ever saw one of his tribe do anything foolish or unbecoming to the funeral director he has ever been since the birth of time, and that must ever be while time endures? The ancients believed him to be able to scent a funeral several days before a death occurred….Inside and out he is clothe in deepest black; eve his tongue and the inside of his mouth are in mourning. Seeming to think it incumbent on him to live up to his funeral garb and occupation, faithful to his trust, with clerical solemnity he goes about his everyday duties.
…

“With no song in which to tell his story, and no garments gay to captivate the eye….he wins the mate to whom he remains true forever. To him the marital bond is not the mere tie of a season, but one that holds through life. He assists the dusky bride of his choice in the establishing a commodious home in the most commanding situations availale–the top of the tallest tree in the edge of the wood, and which may have been planted by one of his ancestors. He assists her in giving warmth to their eggs in the nest. He carries foo to her while she broods over them. He braves every danger in protecting both her and them against predatory hawks and owls and frolicking squirrels, to whom he is known as the ‘warrior crow.’ With tenderest solicitude, he relieves his mate as far as he can in ministering to their nestlings.

“And what of the young crows in the nest? …when after many excursions baby appetites have been satisfied, in their lofty cradles in the treetops, the infant crows are rocked by the breezes, and though the tuneless throats of the parents

 

yield no songs they are not without musick for soft aeolian lullabies soothe them to sleep. [Walker, pg. 177]

 

Several years ago, I visited Vancouver, and I saw several raven totems, and after I returned from that trip, I painted my Raven watercolor. In those indigenous raven totems, I had experienced raven mythology that had taken a visual form. Today, I am researching the folklore associated with various birds, and my min returned to one of my favorite picture books:
Image Credit: Gerald McDermott
Cover of Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest

“Raven, the trickster, wants to give people the gift of light. But can he find out where Sky Chief keeps it? And if he does, will he be able to escape without being discovered?

“His dream seems impossible, but if anyone can find a way to bring light to the world, wise and clever Raven can.” Amazon

Walt Disney did some wonderful things with the imagery of crows, and much of what he created stemmed from old folklore and legends.

“Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty was released in theaters on January 29, 1959. The film was based on the Charles Perrault fairy tale of the same name.”

“One of the earliest written versions of the Sleeping Beauty tale was by Charles Perrault, published in 1697 in his Histories, or Stories of Past Times.” Google ai

The Sleeping Beauty story has been re-told several times, and each re-telling probably adds to and detracts from the essence of the original tale.

Image Credit: Disney Movie Sleeping Beauty
Disney added a raven to the story, and in Disney’s movie, the raven is a manifestation of evil

In the 2014 Maleficent, the lady and the raven are almost synonymous, and the main character’s pet raven is a shape-shifter. He shifts back and forth from raven to boy.

The Raven or Crow or Blackbird Is A Frequent Player in Folk and Fairy Tales

Image Credit: Public Domain

Walter Crane

Walter Crane

Walter Crane

“The raven and his congener, the crow, are so confused in literature as well as in the minds of the great mass….The raven is a larger bird and not quite so numerous or widely distributed as the crow, but in general appearance and habits they are practically the same.

“If tradition is to be credited, we are more indebted to this bird or ancient family than to any other feathere creature, for he has played an important part in history–sacre and profane–in literature, and in art; and throughout all ages and nations he has rendered infaluable service.

“On the authority of the Koran we know that it was he who first taught man to bury his dead. When Cain knew not what disposition to make of the bod of his slain brother, ‘God sent a raven, who killed another raven in his presence, and then dug a pit with his beak and claws, and buried him therein,’ And it was the raven whom Noah sent forth to learn whether the waters had abated–one of the rare instances wherein he ever proved faithless to his trust–

^[6 After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark ⁷ and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. ⁸ Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. – Genesis 8:6-7]

and it was he who gave sustenance to the hungry prophet, Elijah.” Walker, pg. 167.

Elijah Fed by Ravens

² Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: ³ “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. ⁴ You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.”

⁵ So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. ⁶ The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. I Kings 17:2-6.

“In Norse mythology, Odin, the greatst of all the gods–the raven’s god–had for his chief advisers two ravens, Hugin and Munin (Mind and Memory), who were sent out [Walker, pg. 167] by him each morning on news-gathering journeys, and who returned to him at nightfall to perch on his shoulder and whisper into his ears the intelligence of the day. When news of unusual importance was desired, Odin himself, in raven guise, went forth to seek it. [Walker, pag. 168].

Carlo Dolci – Saint Pual the Hermit Fed by the Raven c. 1648

“As a companion of saints this bird has had a wide experience; every day for sixty years he brought breat to St. Paul, the Hermit, in the desert, and on the day preceding the saint’s death he brought a double share, that there might be sufficient to supply the needs of St. Anthony, who was visiting him.” [Walker, pg. 171]

“While folklorists and cultural anthropologists collect similar stories and fairy tales from around the world, it struck me the other day just what a gulf there is in European cultures between the popular, folktale version of the raven as a preternatural harbinger of doom, and the bird’s frequent appearances in Christian hagiography. Crows and ravens in fairy tales are almost never the “good guy” bird. But every time they appear in Christian “mythology”, it’s almost always to bring food or a message to a human servant of God down on his luck. …

“The image of the raven bringing food and assistance to the holy men and women of God continues through the Christian era. When the greatest of all the desert fathers, St. Anthony, was sent by God to meet St. Paul the Hermit of Thebes, the raven that brought Paul his daily half loaf of bread showed up that day with a whole loaf, to accommodate the illustrious guest.

“Again in the early eremitical monastic life of St. Benedict, when he had retreated from the world to a cave, he was provided with food by a local monk, but always shared with a friendly crow. Later, in the story that comes to us from the Dialogues of St. Gregory the Great, we learn that Benedict was the intended victim of an envious priest, Florentius. “Possessed with diabolical malice,” Florentius “began to envy the holy man’s virtues, to back-bite his manner of living, and to withdraw as many as he could from going to visit him.”

“One day Florentius decided to rid himself of the vexing presence and poison a loaf of bread and send it to the saint as a present.

The man of God received it with great thanks, yet not ignorant of that which was hidden within. At dinner time, a crow daily used to come to him from the next wood, which took bread at his hands; coming that day after his manner, the man of God threw him the loaf which the Priest had sent him, giving him this charge: ‘In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, take up that loaf, and leave it in some such place where no man may find it.’ Then the crow, opening his mouth, and lifting up his wings, began to hop up and down about the loaf, and after his manner to cry out, as though he would have said that he was willing to obey, and yet could not do what he was commanded.

The man of God again and again bide him, saying: ‘Take it up without fear, and throw it where no man may find it.’ At length, with much ado, the crow took it up, and flew away, and after three hours, having dispatched the loaf, he returned again, and received his usual allowance from the man of God.

“To this day, St. Benedict is commonly depicted with a raven or a crow somewhere nearby.

“According to the Vita S. Meginrati in the 9th century, one of St. Benedict’s saintly monastic sons, the hermit St. Meinrad, was murdered by some would-be thieves:

Now there were some ravens who used to come regularly to the servant of God when he was alive and take what was offered from his hands. And as if wishing to avenge the dead man, the ravens followed the thieves while they were fleeing from the hermitage, and filled the woods with loud cawing. And flying as close to the murderers’ heads as they could, they published the crime that had been committed.

“At other times, the ravens have to have their natural tendencies towards mischief curtailed and corrected by a good abbot, like any high-spirited, unruly monk. The Vita Sancti Cuthberti tells the story of the great Northumbrian bishop and abbot Cuthbert’s correction of the two naughty ravens of Lindisfarne who, despite having been warned, disturb the roof of the shelter built for the monastery’s servants. St. Cuthbert banishes them from the island for this misbehaviour. Three days later, having repented, the ravens return seeking pardon. After being forgiven by Cuthbert the ravens bring enough pig fat to grease the boots of the whole monastery for a year.

“Of course, Catholics are not credulous biblical literalists, but we have more reason in our own times to believe it possible that these birds could have been used by God so often. We are coming to learn that the corvids, and ravens in particular, are a good deal smarter than we ever imagined. In fact, they are regarded by researchers as among the most intelligent of all animals.” Hillary White. Ravens and Saint. One Peter Five.

“St. Benedit’s raven saved his life by bearing awy the poisoned loaf sent to this saint by a jealous priest.” [Walker pg. 171]

“After his torture and death at Saragossa, when the body of St. Vincent was thrown to the wild beasts, it was rescued by ravens and borne to his brothers at Valencia, where it reposed in a tomb till the Christians of that place were exposed in a tomb till the Christians of that place were expelled by the Moors. The remains of the saint were then carried away by the exiled Christians, who were driven asore at a point since known as Cape St. Vincent, where they were again placed in a tomb, to be guarded evermore by the faithful ravens.” [Walker, pg. 171]

” And to St Meinrad, St. Oswald, St. Francis, St. Cuthbert, St. Ida and to various other saints and martrs, did these noble birds render substantial service.” [Walker, pag. 171].

“Where was Iduna whose apples would give back youth and strength and beauty to the Dwellers in Asgard? The Gods had searched for her through the World of Men. No trace of her did they find. But now Odin, searching through his wisdom, saw a means to get knowledge of where Iduna was hidden.

“He summoned his two ravens, Hugin and Munin, his two ravens that flew through the earth and through the Realm of the Giants and that knew all things that were past and all things that were to come. He summoned Hugin and Munin and they came, and one sat on his right shoulder and one sat on his left shoulder and they told him deep secrets: they told him of Thiassi and of his desire for the shining apples that the Dwellers in Asgard ate, and of Loki’s deception of Iduna, the fair and simple.

“What Odin learnt from his ravens was told in the Council of the Gods. Then Thor the Strong went to Loki and laid hands upon him. When Loki found himself in the grip of the strong God, he said, “What wouldst thou with me, O Thor?”

“I’ would hurl thee into a chasm in the ground and strike thee with my thunder,” said the strong God. “It was thou who didst bring it about that Iduna went from Asgard.’

“‘O Thor,” said Loki, “do not crush me with thy thun[Pg 24]der. Let me stay in Asgard. I will strive to win Iduna back.'” Colum,Phadraic. The Children of Odin, pgs. 24-25.

“And when the Norse armies went into battle they followed the raven standard–a banner under which William the Conqueror fought…

“Norse navigators, when setting sail, took with them a pair of ravens to be liberted and followed as guides. If these birds returned, it was known that land did not lie in the direction taken; but if they did not they were followed. The discoveries of both Iceland and Greenland are attributed to their leadership.

King Arthur Shifted into a Raven

“Not only gods, but mortals also are known to have assumed raven shape–if Don Quixote be an authority–for this doughty knight informs us that the great King Arthur passed into raven form, not throgu choice, but through witchcraft, and that as a raven he still lives and flies about over his erstwhile kingdom, waiting to be liberated.

[Many legends say that Morgan le Fay is responsible for having turned Arthur into a Raven:

Who Was Morgan le Fay?

“In some parts of Germany these birds are believed to hold the souls of the damned, while in other European sections wicked priests only are believed to be so reincarnated,” [Walker, pg, 168]

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in Peoples’ Ears – Aardema [ Dillon
Image Credit: Amazon

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People – A Picture Book by Verna Aardema – Fabulous Illustrations by Leo & Diane Dillon

Message Bearer

“By some nations, the raven was regarded as the bearer of propitious news from the gods and sacrosanct to others he was the precursor and an object of dread. With diving power, which enabled him for ages to tell the farmer of the coming of the needed rain, the maiden of the coming of her lover, and the invalid of the coming of death, he was received with joy or sadness, according to the message he bore.

“The belief in his power ofdivination was so general that knowledge of the whereabouts of the lost has come to [Walker, pg, 171] be known as ‘raven’s knowledge,’ To the Romans he was able to reveal the means of restoring losst eyesight, even. In Germany he was able to tell not only where lost articles were, but could also make known to survivors where the souls of their lost friends were to be found.

“Faith in his prophetic power was common all over Europe, where he foretold illness and death, an not only could he foretell evil, but he could put forces in action to bring it about even ‘shaking contagion from his wing’

“In England he was looked upon with greater favor; the mere presence of the home of a raven in a treetop was there enough to insure the continuance in power of the family owning the estate.

“The power of the raven continued even ater death; his dried head and beak possessed talismanic power, while some parts of his body were important ingredients in every witch’s brew. To the North American Indian his spit skin drawn over the head of a medicine man gave him the power of prophecy.

“In Bohemia he was assigned the task usually performed by the stork in other lands, while in some parts of Germany witches were credited with riding upon his back instead of on he conventional broomstick, as in other regions.he crow

“To the raven is attributed power not only over human affairs, but the power also of influencing the elements; in old Greece he brought the rains of summer; in modern China crumbs are thrown to his counterpart, the crow, when he lights on the mast of a ship, that he may be induced to influence the powers of the air to bring favorable winds. [Walker, pg. 172]

The Raven in  More Modern Literature

“In later times the raven has added interest to many a story. Many of the world’s best writers have accorded him important roles in their writings–Shakespeare, Milton, Spencer, Marlowe, Southey, Scott, Tennyson, Dickens, Poe, Longfellow, and an initity of others, The wealth of raven literature bears indubtable testimony to the interest people of all times and all localities have felt in this remarkable bird–an interest certain to increase with acquaintance.” [Walker, pg, 173]