Cool Things We Found About Ravens

Cool Stuff We Found With Ravens

Official film made by M. Sweet & S. Shearing for the song "27th Raven's Head (Darkness Showing Through the Head of the Raven)" from the Boduf Songs album "Lion Devours the Sun" on Kranky.

Aesop’s Fable: The Crow and the Pitcher

A crow, half-dead with thirst, came upon a pitcher which had once been full of water; but when the crow put its beak into the mouth of the pitcher he found that only very little water was left in it, and that he could not reach far enough down to get at it. The crow tried, and tried, but at last had to give up in despair. Then a thought came to the crow and it found a pebble nearby and dropped it into the pitcher. The crow continued to search for pebbles and dropped them one by one into the pitcher. After many pebbles, the crow saw the water mount up near him, and after casting in a few more pebbles the crow was finally able to reach the water and quench its thirst thus saving its life. The Moral? Little by little does the trick.

Raven and Seagull

Raven and Seagull

Much of European folklore portrays the Raven as a dark entity, a creature associated with the Devil and a harbinger of death. Yet in Native American folklore, the Raven is seen as a creator and the one who delivered light to darkness such as in this tale, Raven and Seagull.

When the Great Spirit created all things he put them in separate boxes and gave them to the animals who came before humans. As the animals opened their gifts, the world’s creations were released such as wind, fire, mountains, water, and plants. However, the box of light was given to Seagull, who coveted his box and refused to open it. Thus in the beginning there was only darkness.

After pleading with Seagull to no avail, the other animals went to Raven, Seagull’s cousin, and asked if Raven would try to persuade Seagull to put an end to darkness. Raven tried everything: asking, begging, demanding, pleading, coaxing, and flattering. But nothing worked, and Raven grew angry at Seagull's refusal to release the light. Raven thought that it would deserve Seagull right if Seagull had a thorn stuck in Seagull’s foot. Of course, whatever Raven thinks, happens, and Seagull suddenly cried out in pain.

Seagull yelled that something was stuck in his foot. Raven, pretending he did not know what happened, offered to help. But when Raven reached for Seagull's foot, and found the thorn there, Raven did not pull it out, instead, Raven pushed it in. 
"Oh, I am sorry, Seagull, but I can't see what I am doing. If I only had a little bit of light." 
And so, Seagull lifted the lid of the box underneath his wing just a crack, to let out as little light as possible. The specks of light lifted into the heavens and Raven was the first to see the stars.

Once more, Raven reached for Seagull's foot and again pushed the thorn in deeper. The Seagull let out a sharp yelp. Raven said, "I'm sorry, but there is still not enough light. I can’t see what I am doing!" The Seagull lifted the lid a bit more, just enough to let out a round, pale light. It floated up to the sky and Raven was the first to see the Moon. 
Then Raven reached down for Seagull's foot one more time, and pushed the thorn in even deeper. The Seagull screamed in agony, both wings came flying up, and the box came crashing to the earth. The lid flew off and a great ball of fire blasted out. It rocketed up high into the sky, and even Raven could not look directly at the bright glare, that great light which is the Sun. And so it was then, that the first day came.

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.

Sigur Ros - Odin's Raven Magic

Invocation of Raven by Susa Morgan Black

Invocation of Raven
by Susa Morgan Black

Morgana of the Dark Moon Night
Onyx bird, bold in flight
Raven, come to us now!

Keeper of the sacred well
Where the faerie spirits dwell
Raven, come to us now!

Guardian of the Blackthorn Tree
Home of the feared Banshee
Raven, come to us now!

Teacher of warriors, and of sex,
spells that heal and spells that hex
Raven, come to us now!

Bean Sidhe by the river bed
Washing shrouds of the newly dead
Raven, come to us now!

Twin birds of memory and thought
Who brought the knowledge Odin sought
Raven, come to us now!

Raven with his bag of tricks
Always getting in a fix
Raven, come to us now!

Stalwart guardian of the Land
The sacred bird of mighty Bran
Raven, come to us now!

Wise One of the Second Sight
Who foretells our human plight
Raven, come to us now!

Raven, Oldest of us All
Watch over us and hear our call
Raven, come to us now!

A Few Tidbits on Ravens

The Raven, also known as the Common Raven or the Northern Raven, is the largest bird in the Corvidae or Corvini family. Close relatives of the Raven include crows, jackdaws, and rooks. More distant cousins are Choughs, Treepies, Nutcrackers, Magpies and Jays.

There are many species of Ravens around the world - Australian Raven, Little Raven, Forest Raven, New England Raven, Chihuahuan Raven, Dwarf Raven, Brown-necked Raven, White-necked Raven and Thick-billed Raven.

The Raven is a striking black bird, 22 - 27 inches from beak to tail. It is believed that the black plumage helps them absorb and retain heat in colder climates. Distinctive features are their large size, heavy bill, shaggy throat hackles, long fingered wing tips and long wedge shaped tail. The throat feathers are long and pointed, the tail is long and graduated. The entire body is glossy black, as are the bills, legs and feet. Their eyes are dark brown. In an aerial silhouette their longer features easily distinguish them from crows. A Raven can live more than thirty years.

The voice is normally a distinctive deep, harsh croak, or hollow croaking honk. Ravens have a large, complex vocabulary of sounds in their repertoire including a high knocking "toc toc toc", a dry, grating "Kraa", low guttural rattles, and some more musical calls. Captive birds have even been taught to speak.

They are omnivorous eaters, preferring to scavenge, but able to kill when necessary. They prefer carrion - dead sheep, cattle, rabbits and fish, but will also eat nestling birds and eggs, rodents, shellfish, insects, seeds, berries and grain. They have been known, in Greenland, to hunt and kill ptarmigan in flight and to kill puffins emerging from their burrows. Ravens will also hide and store food for later use. Near human habitations, they scavenge in garbage dumps for house scraps.

In northern regions they have been observed to hunt cooperatively with wolves. Ravens will alert wolves to prey, wait for the kill, then feed. Wolves and ravens have also been seen to engage in playful behavior with each other, ravens swooping down at the wolves, who will chase them playfully.

I think we may need to start keeping closer tabs on who Mortimer is spending his play time with...

Why the Crow Shouldn't Cross the Road

There is an old folklore that says finding a dead crow on the road is good luck. However, we are not quite sure the crow would feel the same way about that.

Crow Nursery Rhyme

One Crow Sorrow
Two Crows Joy
Three Crows a Wedding
Four Crows a Boy
Five Crows Silver
Six Crows Gold
Seven Crows a Secret
Never to be told.

Raven Stealing the Sun

We found a couple of different versions of a Native American story about the Raven stealing the sun. Since we did a post on the White Crow a couple of weeks ago, we thought we would first share the version of the White Raven from the Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest.

Accordingly, this is an old tale from the Queen Charlotte Islands on how Raven brought the sun, moon, stars, fresh water and fire to the world.

The story goes that when the world was created, Gray Eagle was the guardian of the sun, moon, stars, fresh water, and fire. Unfortunately, Gray Eagle hated people. His hatred towards them was so deep that he kept his possessions hidden and the people were forced to live in darkness without fresh water or fire.

Gray Eagle also had a beautiful daughter and upon seeing her, Raven fell in love with her. Raven was a handsome snow-white bird and Gray Eagle’s daughter was quite smitten by him. Thus, she invited him to her father’s longhouse.

Upon reaching the lodge, Raven noticed the sun, moon, stars and fresh water hanging from its sides. He knew right away that these resources needed to be shared with the people. As soon as no one was looking he snatched these things as well as a brand of fire from Gray Eagle’s house. When he reached the sky, he placed the sun there and when the sun set, he positioned the moon and then scattered the stars. Afterwards, he kept on flying, still carrying with him the fresh water and brand of fire.

When he saw just the right place on land, he poured out all the water he had stolen. The water fell to the ground becoming fresh-water streams and lakes. As Raven flew on the smoke from the brand of fire he held in his bill blew on his white feathers making them black. Then the fire he held began to burn his bill causing him to drop the firebrand. It landed on the rocks and hid itself within them. That is why, if two stones are struck together, sparks of fire will fly out.

Raven’s feathers remained black from the smoke of the firebrand making the ebony bird we know today.

The Raven

A little Raven musical interlude for your day:

Raven Astral Travel

We stumbled upon this traditional Scottish chant for astral travel (as one does) by turning yourself into a raven or crow for traveling. It is from the witch trial of Isobel Gowdie and should be chanted or sung while holding a raven or crow’s feather. Let us know how it works.

I shall go into a crow
with sorrow and such and a black thraw
And I shall to in the Devil's name
Until I come home again!

To change back:

Crow, crow, crow God,
Send Thee a black thraw
I was a crow just now
But I shall be
in a woman's likeness even now
Crow, crow, crow God,
Send Thee a black thraw!

White Crow Goddess

Branwen is the Manx/Welsh Goddess of love, fertility, and beauty. Bran means crow and the suffix wen means white, together in the feminist form, Branwen, translates to White Crow. The ancient Welsh worshipped her as the daughter of sea, and as Goddess of the moon and love.

Though a symbol of love and beauty, the myth behind the White Crow is of war, grief and death. Branwen is the daughter of the sea God Llyr and Penarddun (translates to chief beauty or most fair), sister of Bran and Manawydan, and half-sister of Nisien and Efnisien, whose father was Eurowydd, who conceived the sons with Penarddun while he held Llyr captive for 3 years.

Her story begins with Matholwch of Ireland seeking her hand in marriage to create an alliance between Ireland and Wales. Her brother Bran grants this union. During the celebration feast, her half-brother, Efnisien arrives home. Furious that his half sister had been given in marriage without his consent, he mutilates all of Matholwch’s horses. Matholwch deeply insulted by this act, commanded his men to return to Ireland. In order to appease Matholwch, Bran ended up giving him the most prized possession of Wales: a magical cauldron that would restore the dead to life. Matholwch and Branwen were then wed.

They returned to Ireland and within a year she bore him a son, Gwern; however, Matholwch was still insulted by Efnisien’s act and the Irish began to complain about their foreign queen. Branwen was soon banished to the kitchen, where she was a slave and daily boxed on the ears by the butcher. Matholwch banned all ships from sailing to Wales and imprisoned any incoming Welsh crews in order to keep Branwen's situation from reaching Bran. During this time Branwen trained a starling to speak and sent it to Wales, where it told Bran of her plight. He immediately sailed to rescue her.

It was then that Matholwch was told of an unusual sighting in the sea, a forest moving towards Ireland. Branwen explained to him this was her brother’s army coming for him. Alarmed, Matholwch devised a plan to get rid of Bran and his army. He built Bran a magnificent house and from every pillar of the home he hung a sack containing an Irish warrior that during a banquet would emerge and slaughter Bran and his army. On Bran’s arrival, he was impressed with the house but Efnisien was suspicious of the sacks. Matholwch told him that they were just sacks of flour. Upon closer inspection of the bags Efnisien felt the shape of a man’s head. Efnisien squeezed the head between his thumb and forefinger until they met in the middle. He did the same for all the remaining sacks and Matholwch had to abandon his plot.

They then had the banquet in which Matholwch agrees to abdicate his throne to his son Gwern. Efnisien asks if he may caress the child and as Gwern approaches, Efnisien grabbed him and threw him into the fire. A bloody brawl immediately ensued of which the Irish soon had the upper hand because they possessed the magical cauldron that would restore the dead to life. Efnisien then sacrificed himself by hiding under a pile of Irish corpses and being thrown along with them into the cauldron. Since no living thing could be placed into the cauldron it shattered into 4 pieces killing Efnisien at the same time.

After 3 days of battle, Bran's army was victorious, but his huge army had been reduced to only 7 and a poisoned arrow fatally wounded Bran. On the Irish side only 5 pregnant women remained to repopulate the whole island. Realizing that the two kingdoms had been destroyed on her account, Branwen sailed to Aber Alaw and died of grief.

Hmmm, talk about your killjoy mythical tales.

Meet the Ravens of London Tower

Marley, a male, born in North Somerset, age 3

Erin, a female, born in North Somerset, age 3
Merlin, a female, born in South Whales, age 4
Baldrick, a male, born in Dartmoor, age 4
Munin, a female, born in North Uist (Scotland), age 14
Thor, a male, born in Hampshire, age 14
Hugine, a female, born in North Uist (Scotland), age 14
Gwylium, a male, born in Welsh Mountain Zoo, age 21

Source: The Historic Royal Palaces website, hrp.org.uk

Death Ravens

We stumbled upon this article from the online UK Daily Mail about flocks of Ravens attacking livestock in Scotland and Whales. Obviously grown tired of rabbit, these birds have now developed a taste for veal and mutton pecking the live animals to death while feasting on their eyes, tongues and under bellies. Since there is a law that protects Ravens, the farmers can’t shoot or harm them. Last year, the Scientific American published research that Ravens are one of the more intelligent species and distinct from most other birds, capable of learning from their own actions and from observing others' behavior. They believe the bird can count and some have even learned to shape leaves into tools for extracting grubs from crevices in trees. But I doubt if the farmers whose livestock is being pecked to death are taking any solace in the fact that it is at least an intellectual bird that is mutilating their animals.

Our favorite line from the article:

"Some reports of raven attacks may be exaggerated, but they do kill things.”

Kind of puts a whole different spin on the edible raven.

If you would like to read the entire article, here is the link:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-563931/Attack-killer-ravens-Flocks-suddenly-slaughtering-lambs--going-on.html