Bird Gods in Ancient Europe 



Wainamoinen thus made answer : 

 *' Therefore is the birch left standing 

 That the birds may rest within it. 

 That the eagle there may rest him. 

 There may sing the sacred cuckoo." 

 Spoke the eagle, thus replying : 

 '* Good indeed thy hero judgment 

 That the birch- tree thou hast left us. 

 Left the sacred birch-tree standing 

 As a resting place for eagles 

 And for birds of every feather." 



(Rune II, Crawford^ s translation^ 



The cuckoo also asks Vaino why he has 

 left the birch-tree and gets the same answer. 

 Wherefore, out of gratitude, the eagle brings 

 fire from heaven, wherewith the forests can be 

 overcome. 



Lemminkainen's bird especial, the harbinger 

 of spring — sui-linda or summer bird, as the 

 Esthonians call it — the cuckoo is even more 

 pronouncedly a sacred, auspicious creature 

 than the woodpecker. In some parts of 

 Germany the people still believe that when 

 you hear his call for the first time in spring 



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