Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



and wing and so confused him that Valerius 

 made his foe an easy prey, whence Valerius 

 was also Corvus thereafter. Here was a crow- 

 counsellor, like the ravens Hugin and Mugin 

 that whispered advice in the ears of the Norse 

 god Odin. Note that the famous Gaulish con- 

 queror of Rome had a name meaning a bird. 



A closer analogy is found in Wales to the 

 legend of Valerius Corvus : in a Mabinogi the 

 hero Owein son of Urien is accompanied by 

 an army of ravens, which attack his enemies 

 like so many Stymphalian birds. Woden's 

 ravens have their parallel in Ireland. The 

 hero Cuchullaind had two magic ravens that 

 announced to him the coming of his foes and 

 were attacked by them for that reason. In 

 Japan there is a special kind of demon or 

 goblin called Karaku-Tengu " crow-demon," 

 having wings and the beak of a crow in place 

 of nose. I have an egg-shaped talisman, used 

 as a button, carved of hard wood, which shows 

 delightfully the birth of a Karaku-Tengu. The 



46 



