Archive for 'legend'

Legendary Ravens

Ravens are majestic birds and thus inspire great and terrible legends, myths, folklore and superstitions. It is no wonder with their capacity for intelligence. Ravens have exactly the same brain-to-body ratio as dolphins and almost the same as humans. “If crows were human, their average IQ would be 135 (the average for humans is 100!)”1 [...]

Rooks, Easter Lore and More

Like many in the corvid family Rooks are attached to many legends, myths, lore and superstitions. In Shropshire, it was believed that rooks never carried sticks to their nests on Sundays or Ascension Day, but simply sat quietly on trees and did not work. It was also believed to be futile to wear new clothes [...]

Magpie (pica pica) Rhymes

One for sorrow
Two for joy
Three for a girl
Four for a boy
Five for silver
Six for gold
Seven for a secret never to be told.
_____________________________________
One for sorrow
Two for mirth
Three for a wedding
Four for a birth
Five for heaven
Six for hell
Seven you’ll see the de’il himsel’
_______________________________
One for sorrow, two for joy;
Three for a girl, four for a boy;
Five for silver, [...]

Ravens in Norse Mythology

Ravens have often been featured in myths and legends, stories, poems, and religious beliefs. For example, the Norse God Odin was said to have a pair of ravens, Huginn (thought) and Muninn (memory). They were said to travel the world from early morning to late into the evening each and every day in search of [...]

Uncatchable

According to a story in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, there once was a virgin princess, a girl so beautiful that she attracted the attention of the lecherous sea god, Poseidon. When sweet words failed to seduce her, the hot-blooded Poseidon attempted to take her by force, and the girl called to the heavens for help. Her plea [...]

Demon Bird

During the witch craze in Western Europe, ravens and crows were sometimes feared as demons. In Strathnaver, Scotland, for example, in the seventeenth century, an entire congregation of prayerful souls was seized with dread when they sensed a spectral raven in the house with them. Evil emanated from this shadowy presence, and the people were [...]