Corvidae – Myths and Superstitions
A more obvious, noisy, garrulous and
imposing group of birds in Britain, you are unlikely to find, than that of the
Corvidae family. They make themselves known wherever they are, and though
highly intelligent, have a wonderfully arrogant disregard for humans and their
activities. As is the case with parts of the natural world that are either
rare, or in this case, common, they have developed a case-load of myth and
superstition. In referring to ‘they’ the prime species for investigation are
the carrion crow (Corvus corone corone),
the magpie (Pica pica), the jackdaw (Corvus monedula), the raven (Corvus corax), and the rook (Corvus frugilegis).
The appearance of any of these birds
is often taken to be portentous of something both momentous and miserable, and
the name (crow) has become associated with anything, raucous, brooding,
sinister, or simply coarse. The plant Crow Garlic (Allium vineale), is cruder than the real thing and a ‘crow-bar’ is
a rough and unsophisticated tool.
The magpie immediately attracts
one’s attention with its pompous manner, bright colouring and harsh call. It
is, though, quite a pretty bird, on closer inspection. It’s behaviour, like the
others of the family has attracted a large amount of negative attention. There
are many poems or rhymes about the bird, and they vary from one part of the
country to another. The most popular is probably:
One for sorrow,
Two for joy,
Three for a wedding, four for a boy,
Five for silver, six for gold,
Seven for a secret ne’er be told.
The rhymes tend to be quite kind and
positive to the bird, though most people know that bad luck is associated with
seeing a lone magpie. Another verse goes:
I saw eight magpies in a tree,
Two for you and six for me.
One for sorrow, two for mirth,
Three for a wedding, four for a birth.
Five for England, six for France,
Seven for a fiddler, eight for a dance.
As there have been rhymes
associating the magpie with ill omen, so there have been counter spells. It was
thought that raising one’s hat or bowing to the bird would lift bad luck.
Others believed that making the sign of the cross or reciting a rhyme would
counter the bad luck:
I cross the magpie
The magpie crosses me
Bad luck to the magpie
And good luck to me
Other defences against the bird were
to spit in its direction and say “Devil, Devil, I defy thee”. Spotting a magpie
that was flying away from the sun was considered especially ill luck and one
would be required to shout “Bad luck to the bird that goes widdershins”. Less
negative and the oldest recorded superstition, is that the sound of a
chattering magpie foretells the coming of a stranger (quite likely as they
often tend to chatter at people!)
In contrast with the rest of the
country, in Sussex it was considered good luck to have a magpie perch on your
roof. This is based on the idea that the wise bird would not be foolish enough
to alight on any unsound structure. So, any tree holding the nest of a magpie
would never fall. Members of the crow family are undoubtedly intelligent if
ill-regarded.
The Jackdaw (Corvus monedula) is the smallest of the crows, and is found almost
everywhere. According to a Norwich saying: “When three daws are seen on St
Peter’s vane together, then we are sure to have bad weather,” something which must
happen regularly, as the birds are very gregarious. This idea also holds at
Wells, Croscombe, near Wells and Romsey in Hants.
Having this species in the vicinity
of one’s house does not seem to have been a positive omen. In Lancashire, it is
thought that the perching of a jackdaw on the sill of a room, in which someone
is ill, does not bode well. Also in the north of England it is considered bad
luck on the owners of a home whose chimney a jackdaw flies down. As they are
great builders of nests in chimneys, this makes a lot of unlucky home owners.
Indeed, you are unlucky if a jackdaw nests in your chimney because its
prodigious building is a nightmare to remove, even for the experienced chimney
sweep. With this common habit, there is a belief in the north of England that
having a jackdaw in the chimney presages death in the house.
The thievish urges of the bird
(often ascribed to the magpie) are also quite notorious, and have been for some
time. In 1544 William Turner wrote that “it is by the Latins strictly named
monedula as if it were monetula from the moneta (money) which alone of birds,
as Pliny says, it steals”. He continues to tell us how “Ovid” describes the
bird in the following lines:
Was changed into a bird, which even now loves gold
Monedula the black of foot, in plumage black arrayed.
For all its associations with theft
and death, the flesh of the jackdaw “fresh and warm”, was claimed to dissolve
tumours, if held against them, and was also thought beneficial against
Scrofula, or “King’s Evil” (a type of tuberculosis affecting the lymph glands,
causing swelling). Its popular name derives from the belief that the touch of
the monarch would cure it.
Despite being part of the Corvid
family, the rook has a relatively good press. It was considered lucky to have
rooks nest on one’s estate. It is understandable then, that land-owners
encouraged the birds to nest on their land. A late vicar of Morwenstow went so
far as to make the invitation of the bird a special part of prayer within the
service. It is unlucky, however, if rooks abandon their nests on the land, and
may even foretell of the death of the heir.
If a death did occur it was often
held that the rooks on the land must be told of it. There is a large rookery at
Round Green, in west Yorkshire and the birds in residence have long been
believed to be the reincarnations of the Elmhirst family, who own the land, and
have done so for many centuries.
Like the other birds of the family,
the crow has long been considered a bird of ill omen, or a “bird of death”;
particularly to the Romans. Its ‘cawing’, especially near the house of someone
who is ill, portends evil. While in other parts of Europe, if the bird alights
on the roof of a house in which a recently deceased person is ‘resting’, then
that, it is claimed, tells us that their soul is damned.
In Sussex to hear it cry three times
is to hear repeated warnings of death, while in the North country, children
greet the crow with the words:
Crow, crow, get out of my sight,
Or else I’ll eat thy liver and lights.
Another rhyme, much like those
attached to the magpie is:
One’s unlucky
Two’s lucky;
Three is health;
Four is wealth;
Five is sickness;
And six is death.
Once again a mixed message is given
as to the nature of the bird; it may presage good or bad events, depending on
numbers.
Scottish
herds-men did not have mixed views on the birds; they used to make offerings to
the hooded crow, eagle and other birds, that they may spare their flocks and
there is a Morayshire saying that:
The Guil, the Gordon and the
Hoodie Craw,
Were the three worst things Murray
ever saw.
Some believe that the crow does have
virtues in the hand of a person, bestowing riches and honour. It is also
credited with being capable of undoing human deeds. It is said to have
knowledge of a special stone that will make its egg fertile again if it has
been hard boiled. Whether boiled crow’s eggs are quite so popular now is open
to debate!
The raven is largest of the crow
family by far, and possibly the most imposing. Because of its size, colouring
and arrival on the battlefield, to feed on corpses, it has always been
associated with foreboding and death. Strangely, however, its associations are
not all negative; as we have seen so far, much depends upon the circumstances.
It was widely believed that their presence before an important event,
such as a hunting or fishing trip, bestowed good luck on the venture. In the
Highlands of Scotland it was thought that to hear a raven croak was a very
positive omen when deer-stalking. In seventeenth-century Ireland, the sight of
a raven with white on its wing (very unlikely), flying on one’s right-hand
side, whilst croaking at the same time, was most definitely a sign of good
fortune. To see such an event in itself is an event of good fortune!
Having said that, the majority of superstitions associated with the
raven are negative; in Christopher Marlowe’s Jew of Malta the bird is
unequivocally sinister:
...the sad, presaging raven that tolls
The sick man’s passport in her hollow beak
And in the shadow of the silent night
Doth shake contagion from her sable wings
One of the best known legends regarding ravens is that if they dessert
the Tower of London then the fall of the country will soon follow. This is
reminiscent of the rook forsaking her nest and the death of the land-owner. The
ravens at the Tower were all killed during World War II and new ones brought
in. They are now tamed and pinioned to prevent their escape, which gives an
insight into the power bird superstition has over us even today.
Its powers in the past are perhaps a little more gruesome and strange.
According to many old ‘Bestiaries’ and ‘Naturall Histories’ raven’s eggs
roasted with nail clippings of a murderer were a certain cure for ague (fever).
The origin of this particular belief is as obscure and bizarre as to be
impossible to trace. Pliny claimed that “if women great with child chance to
eat a raven’s egg, they shall be delivered of their children at the mouth.”
There are many such legends in which various parts of the birds or
their eggs or chicks can bestow magical powers. However the overwhelming
majority of superstitions attached to the raven are similar to those of the
other corvids; it is an ill omen or a sign of death. This belief probably stems
from the family’s food source and their congregation at that food source. Mix
this with dark plumage and sinister calls and here is a family ripe for the
attachment of death. But all carnivores thrive on death, most kill their prey
themselves, and yet they are not the subject of such superstition. The crow
family is an efficient ‘cleaner’ of the dead and sometimes a messenger of good
intent.
agazine may be of interest.. I'll come back to put in some illustrations.
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