Crows and Ravens

Well I was hoping to have more time to write up information about another creature found in ballad and folklore and commonly seen as a motif for Halloween, but Sandy had other ideas.  So I'll share with you what I was able to collect before I was distracted by wind and rain!

Crows and Ravens.  

A beautiful tray featuring a rather dapper fellow.

A gorgeous yet simple image of a crow.

By artist Jeremy Hush.

 There is a pose in yoga known as The Crow.  This image shows both the real creature, and the yoga  position.  (From Tumblr, original source unknown)

 Queen Ravenna, in the recent release Snow White and the Huntsman, lives up to her name by wearing a gown strewn with raven skulls and a transformation cloak made of black feathers.

 Gorgeous image of blackbirds and cherries by Danielle Barlow.

So...this is a quilt.  Beaded.  Gorgeous.  I love how the branches extend off the edge of the frame at top.

 Four and twenty black-birds.  I always felt bad for the poor creatures in this nursery rhyme.

And of course, no discussion of crows and blackbirds on a mythic blog would be complete without a shout-out to Charles de Lint's memorable Crow Girls, here rendered by Aaron Pocock.

The Three Ravens is an old ballad that includes a group of blackbirds discussing where they should find their meal.  They discuss a fallen knight who has died and been left by his hawk, his hound and his beloved.  Sad, but catchy, when sung in a slightly different version by Steeleye Span as "Twa Corbies"

 Note the body of the knight in the field?  Gorgeous but (shudder) macabre.

A beautiful embroidered garland of corvids from Etsy.

A sweet classic nursery rhyme image from Etsy.

I adore this embroidered pillow from Etsy.  And guess what?  The seller has one of a bat as well.

A whimsical print.

 And another, set against the eponymous poem by Poe.

Pie birds.  My mom gave me one upon request for a recent birthday.  No doubt at least part of their origin is owed to the nursery rhyme of the poor things baked in a pie, but they just add such cheerful whimsy...not to mention they are practical.

The Plague Doctor was a physician who would dress in what now appears to us to be a ridiculous ensemble to visit plague victims.  The "beak" of his mask was filled with aromatic herbs to fend off the stench of illness, the lenses in his mask were tinted red to ward off evil.  And he dressed all in black with a black wide-brimmed hat that identified him as a physician.

 Artist Toby Froud played the Plague Doctor on stilts at Faeriecon three years ago. 

And my friend Lindsey and I, also dressed in vaguely Plague Doctor-y masks, had to get a shot:

 The Grimm fairy tale of the Seven Ravens is a beautiful one, here incredibly rendered in silhouette by a new favorite artist of mine, Steering for North.

Jim Henson also filmed a version of the tale on his incredible Storyteller tv show.  It's my personal favorite episode of Storyteller, with Miranda Richardson playing an incredible evil role, and Vanessa Redgrave's daughter Joely Richardson (well for crying out loud...I never even knew it was her until I just looked it up to write it here) playing the heroine role.

 From Pinterest: "Illustration of a Japanese fairy tale wherein a girl befriends a crow demon in order to save the soul of her sister."  Anyone know more about this story?

And finally, I have to put this question out there to the interwebs.  About twelve years ago I worked at a new-age bookstore.  We would enjoy talking with and exchanging stories with the people who came in there.  Once I told one of the customers that I always tended to see a spiderweb or a crow before something magical or supernatural was going to happen, or I had to pay attention in the moment.  He told me that there was a superstition or piece of lore that when you were traveling, if you saw a crow overhead flying in the same direction as you, it meant you were on the right path, both physically and spiritually.  If, however, a crow flew across your path, it was a sign to change directions.

Has anyone heard of this before?  I would love to know the origin!




So there you have it.  On the eve of Halloween, let's celebrate these beautiful, highly-intelligent, and extremely magical creatures!