King Arthur the Raven

There are many superstitions and folktales associated with Ravens. One legend says King Arthur was transformed into a Raven or a crow upon his death.

In early western culture, some believed after death human souls would inhabit birds. These birds would be able to foresee danger and death. The supposed rationale for this thought was that the spirits of the dead had lived through harsh times and thus had the knowledge to predict when the end was near. These birds were also alleged to appear to warriors foretelling them of their death. Therefore it may have been considered that the great warrior himself, King Arthur, was enchanted into a Raven.

A more mythic version is that Morrigan, a goddess of battle and death associated with Ravens, who some saw as a precursor of Morgan le Fay, King Arthur’s sister, transformed him into a Raven, for her own bird and harbinger of death. A variant of this tale is that King Arthur existed as a man in Avalon but would manifest himself in our world as a Raven.

This belief that King Arthur could reveal himself in this world as a Raven continued to be held in Cornwall till the early nineteenth century where it was considered a strict taboo to kill a Raven because it could be King Arthur. It is also thought that there is probably a connection between this tradition of his transmigration and the custom of keeping six Ravens at the Tower of London. It has been said that as long as there are Ravens at the Tower, Britain cannot be conquered.