There is a large Murder of Crows that have taken residence in the trees behind our house. Hundreds, maybe a thousand of them. They're noisy - all of the dogs in the building are freaked. They're messy - my car, my skylight and my patio are covered in crow shit. And they're scary - I understand now why it's a murder of crows.
I'm wondering whether they're also significant,
For the Celts, the crow was sacred and meant the flesh torn by fighting. "The crow pierced him" was a way to to say "he died".
The Bible has a different take. After Adam and Eve were driven away from the Paradise, the crows started to eat carrion - and they became black-feathered. At the end of time, the crows will find their beauty again and sing harmoniously to praise God.
In Africa the crow is a sent as a sign to tell men that menace is on the way.
The Greeks has the crow as a white messenger bird, until it delivered bad news and was turned black by an angry Apollo.
So it's bad news basically. One because it's black. Two because it feeds on carrion.
Bugger.
Wonder if there's a 'loose bowel' crow legend anywhere
1 comment:
What kind of crows do they have in Michigan? I mean rooks gather in masses, but our old carrion crows over here are fairly solitary. I got attacked by one once when i wandered too close to a nest, was quite suprising. So a large mass like that must be fairly daunting. Just imagine what it must have been like over there before they drove the Passenger Pigeon to extinction...
Crows used to freak me a bit, on account of I kept meeting witches for whom they had a fondness, but I must say I like the glossy fellows in London's parks. Far nicer than the vicious gulls, and oh so intelligent. Once you respect something, it becomes less of a nuisance.
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