Mythological Stories of the Crow and RavenFrom Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Norway, Tibet and the Pacific Northwest Coast come many rich and colorful stories of the crow and raven intertwined with their cultural history. Many layers of stories from different time periods are blended together, due to people migrating and invading.
From Scotland, come stories of the Hoodie or Royston Crow. This story has a marriage between a human and a crow and the crow eventually leaves the human spouse. The stories of humans marrying animals may be the echoes from the early days of the aboriginal people who were displaced by invaders, and later the earlier aboriginal peoples are referred to as the little people or the fairies who sometimes come in the form of animals.
From Ireland come stories of the Celtic War Goddesses and the Morrigu, who changes into a Hoodie or Carrion-Crow, follow the warriors into battles and help to stir their passions to fight.
From Germany comes the early stories of the Swan-Maidens who marry some hunters that have traveled far from their home. They stay married for a short time and then the Swan-Maidens leave. This story is similar to the Scottish story of the crow marrying and then leaving the human wife. Swans were associated with Weather Goddesses and fertility. They later were associated with the Valkyrie and the Raven in the times of the Vikings.
From Norway, there are stories of the Valkyrie, seemingly a combination of earlier Weather Goddesses and the Celtic War Goddesses, so that the Valkyries are depicted sometimes as swans and other times as ravens, choosing the slain who will enter Valhalla.
From Tibet, comes the story of the crow told by the Dalai Lama about the great protector Mahakala of the Buddhists, who has the crow as one of his personages.
From the Pacific Northwest Coast, the Tlingit, comes the story of Raven, who was made head man of the world.
ScotlandThe Picts are the aborigines of Scotland. Crow or Craw, Breton Krao, is a shed or hovel. An example of their association with the crow and later the fairy people, are the prehistoric structures or Picts’ Houses, called Piskies' Halls and Piskies' Crows that can be found in Cornwall. (1)
This is a story from Scotland about the Hoodie Crow, the magical being or sidhe, fairy person that marries a human. The Hoodie Crow as a fairy being, preceded the stories where it plays a role as the Morrigu or Badb-Catha, associated with the fury of battles in the Irish tales.
Scottish Hoodie Crow (Royston Crow)
Popular Tales of the West Highlands by J. F. Campbell Volume I, 1890
The Tale of the Hoodie-Crow
THERE was ere now a farmer, and he had three daughters. They were waulking clothes at a river. A hoodie came round and he said to the eldest one, ’M-POS-U-MI, "Wilt thou wed me, farmer's daughter?" "I won't wed thee, thou ugly brute. An ugly brute is the hoodie," said she. He came to the second one on the morrow, and he said to her, "M-POS-U-MI, wilt thou wed me?" "Not I, indeed," said she; "an ugly brute is the hoodie." The third day he said to the youngest, M-POS-U-MI, "Wilt thou wed me, farmer's daughter?," "I will wed thee," said she; "a pretty creature is the hoodie," and on the morrow they married. The hoodie said to her, "Whether wouldst thou rather that I should be a hoodie by day, and a man at night; or be a hoodie at night, and a man by day?" "I would rather that thou wert a man by day, and a hoodie at night," says she. After this he was a splendid fellow by day, and a hoodie at night. A few days after they married he took her with him to his own house. (2)
Ireland
From Ireland, come stories of the war goddesses. The Morrigu takes the form of a carrion crow, hovers over the warriors in a battle and works to emblaze the fighting spirit.
Five War Goddesses, daughters of Ernmas (mother goddess of the Danu)
Fea, the "Hateful", Nemon, the "Venomous", Badb, the "Fury", Macha, a personification of "battle", and, over all of them, the Morrigu, or "Great Queen". Wherever there was war, either among gods or men, she, the great queen, was present, either in her own shape or in her favourite disguise, that of a "hoodie" or carrion crow.
An old poem shows her inciting a warrior:
From the Battle of Magh-Rath (3)The following poem is from the Book of Leinster, 1160, a book of medieval Irish mythology and literature. The Cattle-Raid of Cooley is set in the 1st century. The Queen of Connaught wants to take a famous bull away from a chieftain of Ulster. The men of Ulster are unable to fight due to a curse, and a single hero takes on the task of defending Ulster. (4)"There is over his head shrieking
A lean nimble cailleach, hovering
Over the points of their weapons and shields;
She is the gray-haired Morrigu”.
The Decision of the Battle.
It was on that night that the Morrigan, daughter of Ernmas, came, and she was engaged in fomenting strife and sowing dissension between the two camps on either side, and she spoke these words:
Hoodie-Crows shall pick
The necks of men!
Blood shall gush
In combat wild!
Skins shall be hacked
Crazed with spoils!
Men's sides pierced
In battle brave,
Luibnech near!
Warriors' storm;
Mien of braves;
Cruachan's men!
Upon them comes
Ruin complete!
Lines shall be strewn
Under foot;
Their race die out!
Then Ulster hail:
To Erna woe!
To Ulster woe:
Then Erna hail!
(This she said in Erna's ear.)
Naught inglorious shall they do
Who them await!Unusual words from the poem defined (5) -
Cruachan: the ancient seat of the kings of Connacht.
Erna: a sept of Munstermen who settled in Connacht.
Luibnech: It could be a place on the borders of ancient Meath and Munster or in the county of Wexford. See footnote (11).
Mien: facial expression, demeanor
Germany
A Swan-Maiden story from the Poetic Edda – The Lay of Volund
The Swan Maiden is of German origin. This poem is from the Poetic Edda, a collection of poems of Norse mythology and Germanic heroic legends, dating as far back as the 9th century.
Swan maidens were first associated with the weather-goddesses and gods of early Germanic mythology, and later when these stories were carried into northern lands, the swan maiden became associated with the Valkyries. Alexander Krappe in his article on Valkyries wrote this: “The Valkyries show all the characteristics and fill all the functions of the Heavenly Twins, sons or daughters of the sky or of the thunder: they are fertility daemons, helpers in battle and at sea. Their position in the warrior's paradise of the migration period and the Viking Age is late and the outcome of the social revolutions which swept the Teutonic world after the fourth century of our era.” (6)
This story also contains the theme of the marriage between a human and animal, as is seen frequently in the Celtic stories related to fairies and people of the mounds, the sidhe.
In this story, Volund the Smith is lamed by a King and then takes revenge. In part of the story, Volund and his two brothers go hunting and build a house by a lake. One morning, they find three swan-maidens at the shore and they take them as their wives.
German Swan Maiden
The Poetic Edda, volume 2
The Lay (Ballad) of Volund the Smith (7)Maids from the south through Myrkwood flew,
Fair and young, their fate to follow;
On the shore of the sea to rest them they sat,
The maids of the south, and flax they spun.Hlathguth and Hervor, Hlothver's children,
And Olrun the Wise Kjar's daughter was.One in her arms took Egil then
To her bosom white, the woman fair.
Swan-White second,-- swan-feathers she wore,
And her arms the third of the sisters threw
Next round Völund's neck so white.
There did they sit for seven winters,
In the eighth at last came their longing again,
(And in the ninth did need divide them).
The maidens yearned for the murky wood,
The fair young maids, their fate to follow.
Norway
Now we come to the Vikings and the Valkyries. When Vikings had their battles, the fields would be strewn with the fallen soldiers and afterwards wolves and ravens would feast on the corpses. The raven and the swan became associated with the battle and also with the Valkyrie, the female spirit who would choose the slain who had showed courage to enter the place of honor Valhalla.
Again we can see earlier earth deities replaced or overlaid by gods and spirits of war. The original Yggr of Norse mythology refers to Yggrdrasil, the world tree. Later the name Yggr is associated with Odin who is now the chief god, a god of war, not a god of earth. Also Yggrdrasil has the meaning steed of the terrible one, likely an association of Odin with his horse and spear.
Raven Kennings (kenning is a figure of speech used in Norse Poetry) (8)
swan of Yggr (Odin)
swan of Gunnr (Valkyrie)
swan of bloodFrom Rudolph Meissner’s Kennings of Skaldic Poetry, 1921
Norse Valkyrie From The Heimskringla (World Circle) by Snorri Sturlason
A collection of sagas about the Kings of Norway, from A.D. 850 to A.D. 1177. (9)King Olaf’s Forays
Thereafter Olaf Trygvason sailed to England, and ravaged wide around in the land. He sailed all the way north to Northumberland, where he plundered; and thence to Scotland, where he marauded far and wide. Then he went to the Hebrides, where he fought some battles; and then southwards to Man, where he also fought. He ravaged far around in Ireland, and thence steered to Bretland, which he laid waste with fire and sword, and all the district called Cumberland. He sailed westward from thence to Valland, and marauded there. When he left the west, intending to sail to England, he came to the islands called the Scilly Isles, lying westward from England in the ocean. Thus tells Halfred Vandraskald of these events: --
The brave young king, who ne'er retreats,
The Englishman in England beats.
Death through Northumberland is spread
From battleaxe and broad spearhead.
Through Scotland with his spears he rides;
To Man his glancing ships he guides:
Feeding the wolves where'er he came,
The young king drove a bloody game.
The gallant bowmen in the isles
Slew foemen, who lay heaped in piles.
The Irish fled at Olaf's name --
Fled from a young king seeking fame.
In Bretland, and in Cumberland,
People against him could not stand:
Thick on the fields their corpses lay,
To ravens and howling wolves a prey."
TibetIn Tibet, the crows are associated with Mahakala, who is the Dharma (Buddha's Doctrine) Protector of all Buddha fields.
“Mahakala shall have the empowerment of all the wisdom dakinis. He shall have the strength of the wrathful Yama, Lord of Death. He shall have the mountain spirits, the nature spirits, the devils and the demonesses as his messengers. He shall embody the great wrathful empowerments of the Body, Speech, Mind, Qualities and Activity of all the Buddhas throughout the three times.” (from Geshe Damcho Yonten)
The Dalai Lama relates how the crows are associated with the Dalai Lamas and Mahakala.
After my birth, a pair of crows came to roost on the roof of our house. They would arrive each morning, stay for while and then leave. This is of particular interest as similar incidents occurred at the birth of the First, Seventh, Eighth and Twelfth Dalai Lamas. After their births, a pair of crows came and remained. In my own case, in the beginning, nobody paid attention to this. Recently, however, perhaps three years ago, I was talking with my mother, and she recalled it. She had noticed them come in the morning; depart after a time, and then the next morning, come again.
Now, the evening the after the birth of the First Dalai Lama, bandits broke into the family's house. The parents ran away and left the child. The next day when they returned and wondered what had happened to their son, they found the baby in a corner of the house. A crow stood before him, protecting him. Later on, when the First Dalai Lama grew up and developed in his spiritual practice, he made direct contact during meditation with the protective deity, Mahakala. At this time, Mahakala said to him, Somebody like you who is upholding the Buddhist teaching needs a protector like me. Right on the day of your birth, I helped you. So we can see, there is definitely a connection between Mahakala, the crows, and the Dalai Lamas. (10)
Tlingit
Raven was born to Raven-at-the-head-of-Nass (Nâs-cA'kî-yêl), the principal deity to whom the Tlingit formerly prayed. Raven brings light to the world and the major rivers. His series of stories in the Tlingit culture is of shamans and the people and the animals and how they interacted and how they may have risen or fallen in the society by their actions. Raven flies through the tent hole at the top and is held back by Petrel. As he was flying up through the smoke hole with Petrel's water, the latter said, "Spirits, hold down my smoke hole." So they held him until he was turned black by the smoke. Formerly he was all white. (12)
1. The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries By W. Y. Evans-Wentz, 1911, chap 2.
2. Popular Tales of the West Highlands by J. F. Campbell, Volume I, 1890.
3. The Gods of the Gaels. Celtic Myth and Legend, by Charles Squire, 1905.
4. From The Cattle-Raid of Cooley – the decision of the Battle.
5. The Ancient Irish Epic Tale Táin Bó Cúalnge glossary
6. The Valkyries, Alexander Krappe, The Modern Language Review, Vol. 21, 1926
7. The Poetic Edda , volume 2, The Lay (Ballad) of Volund the Smith.
10. Dalai Lama.
11. Chronicum Scotorum, part 1135, p 148