RAVEN FOLKLORE AND MYTH

RAVEN FOLKLORE & MYTH

Ravens and crows have been a dominant feature of storytelling across all cultures for thousands of years. These large, intelligent, black scavenger birds have been associated with death, world creation, gods, tricksters, and secret knowledge of wolves and hunting.  Here is a brief look at how the raven has become part of the way we see the world.

A LINK BETWEEN THE WORLDS OF THE LIVING AND THE DEAD

As a scavenger bird who eats carrion, ravens have become associated in myth with transcending the barrier between life and death.  Druids certain regarded ravens as creatures that could carry messages from the land of the dead. In Kenyan folktales, Mount Kilimanjaro is home to dwarves who sacrifice animals to the spirits of their ancestors, and that ravens are born from the pieces of meat from the sacrifice. Folk stories in Sweden describe that the fate of the lost souls of those who have been murdered, and not given a proper burial, are destined to become ravens.

WHY IS THE RAVEN BLACK?

The black feathers seem to be given to the Raven as a punishment, whether deserved or not.  In a native American Sioux tale, the raven starts out as a white bird who is thrown on to a fire and charred black by a group of hunters who discover that he has warned the buffalo that the hunters are coming.  The raven finds a similar fate in Aboriginal myth, when the Raven’s failed attempt to steal fire from the seven sisters of the Pleides (a star cluster) ends in his feathers being burnt black. In Greek mythology, the white raven was turned black by the god Apollo for bringing him bad news. In the story Apollo falls in love with a mortal girl, Coronis. He impregnates her and orders a white raven to watch over her.  Coronis, however, falls in love with a man, Ischys, and marries him. On hearing this news from the raven, Apollo acts in jealous rage by killing Coronis and her husband and punishing the raven for bringing him the bad news.

THE RAVEN AND THE SUN

Chinese, Tibetan, Siberian and Native American folklore hold that the raven is a symbol of the sun.  In Chinese mythology, a three legged raven lives in the sun, representing the sun’s three phases: rising, noon and setting. In native American tales the Raven steals the sun and is forced to give it back. In Siberian mythology, Kutkh, the raven spirit, brings light to the earth in several ways, either by peeling away the stones that cover the earth; by producing the sun from his beak; or by tricking other deities to give light to the earth.

RAVENS AND NORSE MYTHOLOGY  

In Norse mythology Odin carries two ravens on his shoulders. They are called Huginn (Thought) and Muninn (Memory). Each morning the two ravens fly through the nine realms and bring news back to Odin. In Scandinavian (and Native American) traditions, ravens became associated with prophecy. The raven symbology was popular with viking leaders. In 1066 the Viking king Harald Hardrada fought Harold Godwinson, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, under the raven banner called, Landeythan (land-waster).

WISDOM, HUNTING & KINSHIP WITH WOLVES

In Lapland, the folklore of the Saami people talks of the raven’s feather of knowledge, called, the laevedolge.  This special feather gives the raven its knowledge about the ways of the wolf and how to find food. Hunters are able to harnish the knowledge of the laevedolge for themselves if they find a dying raven, pluck it, and place its feathers in a stream.  The laevedolge feather will flow against the current, and if the hunter is able to keep it for three nights, then it will belong to him and guide him in his hunting. The indigenous people of Finland have a similar tradition, which states that a raven has a feather of good fortune, and if a hunter can obtain this feather he will be blessed with fortune in his hunting.

SIBERIAN FOLKLORE: KUTKH THE MIGHTY RAVEN SPIRIT CREATOR

Kutkh is a raven god, or spirit, important to Siberian and North East Asian shamanic tradition and creation myths. Kutkh takes the form of a raven and is translated simply as god or creator. Siberian folklore tells various contradictory versions of Kutkh’s role in creation. Kutkh is a trickster, and in some tales he creates himself, in others he is created by the Creator.  In some tales the land itself is said to have been formed from Kutkh’s excrement, and in others that he brought light to the earth by breaking through the stones which surrounded the planet, or by producing the sun and moon from his beak, or by tricking other spirits to bring light from the cosmos.   In all stories the raven is fiercely independent, even of the Creator himself. Many of the stories regarding Kutkh are similar to those of the Raven among the native American peoples, which suggests a cultural transfer of stories as some point in history

In one creation myth, Kutkh grew tired as he was flying in the cosmos and he regurgitated the Earth so that he could rest upon it. Turning himself into a man, the raven god walked on the earth, and from his footprints were born mice. Fearless creatures, like Kukth himself, the mice crawled up the raven’s nose as he slept. Being a deity, Kutkh's sneeze was so powerful that it creased the land created all the mountains on the earth. Angry at the mice Kukth tried to squash the mice, and his footprints left valleys that became oceans. The tiny mice continued to play tricks on the raven creator, leading to battles between elements such as water and fire which indirectly formed the seasons. The earth as we know it was thus created from Kutkh’s failed attempts to stop the small mice. Although Kutkh the raven brought gifts such as the sun, fire, water and the spoken word, as well as knowledge of sex, he is also often satirised in Siberian folklore and degraded, shown as a selfish being, who is simply a hungry thief and in his true nature he is a wild trickster.

NATIVE AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY

In native American folktales the raven comes in several guises, such as Dotson Sa (Great Raven),  Nankilstlas (He Whose Voice Must Be Obeyed), and Nascakiyetl (Raven at the Head of River).The raven is an extremely powerful figure, often a trickster and a world creator. The tales of native Americans bear a resemblance to the Siberian stories of Kutkh, the raven trickster who created the world.

INUIT LEGENDS OF CREATION

The Inuit people of the Artic and Greenland have their own raven creation myths which state that when the raven had created the universe he was weak and forgot who who was.  He wandered, lonely, but slowly realised the he was the creator of all things. On earth the raven came in contact with the first man, and the first woman, whom the raven fed and taught how to live in the world. When the couple had children the raven taught them, as he had taught their parents. These people were the ancestors of the Inuits.

RAVENS OF THE TOWER

Ravens are kept permanently in the Tower of London, a tradition which stems from the superstition that, should the ravens fly away from the tower, then Albion would fall to invasion, and the Crown with it. The origins of the Ravens of the Tower legend may stem back to the Welsh folklore regarding Bran, an ancient giant, king of the Celtic Britons.  

According to the second tale of Mabinogion, a key source of Welsh Celtic folklore, the head of the giant Bran was buried under the White Hill, now the site of the White Tower in the Tower of London. Bran was not a man, but a giant, and he encompassed the spirit of the raven (Bran meaning Raven in Welsh).Legend has it that Bran ordered his own head cut off and buried under White Hill, where his ever-seeing eyes could permanently watch the coast for invasion.

the site of the hill was for many years a place of worship and it seems possible that the Ravens of the Tower maybe an extension of Welsh legend. However, it has also been claimed that in the 6 C. AD, Arthur Pendragon, a Celtic chief, dug up the head, claiming that he was the only person who could guarantee Albion’s safety from invasion. 

STORIES IN FOLK MUSIC: THE BALLAD OF THE THREE RAVENS

In folk music, an old English ballad, The Three Ravens, tells the tale of three birds discussing how to eat a dead knight. In one version of the song his body is guarded by dogs and hawks loyal to the dead knight and his pregnant mistress finds his body and buries it before the ravens could feast on him. The Three Ravens ballad was first published in 1611 by Thomas Ravenscroft, but it is likely an adaptation of an older, darker tale found in the  Scottish song, The Twa Corbies. In this version, the birds talk of how the dead are deserted by their loyal hounds and hawks, and the crows feast by plucking out his eyes and making their nests from his hair. It supports the darker view that life goes on after your death.

SERBIA: EPIC POETRY

In Serbian Epic Poems, such as the Battle of Mishar, ravens embody death.  They are used as a device to deliver the news of a death of a hero, or loved one, to a mother or a wife. In some poems these birds are given supernatural qualities and are able to talk, but in other poems the birds deliver the news in a grotesque manner, such as carrying the finger of a loved one which still bears his ring.

RAVEN AS DEPICTED IN RELIGION

In the Qur’an, a raven is said to be the creature who shows Cain how to bury his brother Abel, whom he had murdered in jealousy.  However, probably the most well known biblical tale of ravens comes form the Book of Genesis (Gen. 8:6-7), in which Noah lets a raven fly from the Ark after the great flood.  The raven is supposed to bring back news of land, but it never returns. This was later interpreted as meaning that the raven was selfish and sinful (in juxtaposition to the white dove), and it was suggested that the raven did not return as it was feeding on the bodies of the dead.  However, the bible also shows the raven as a symbol of God’s provision for man. In the Book of Kings (17: 4-6), the prophet Elijah is fed by ravens sent by God.