The Ravens' God 207 



In those times which have since been described, by those 

 who did not know them, as 



<c The good old days, before the reign of order, 

 When rapine was the watchword of the Border, 

 When power was law, force justice, and might right, 

 And the best plea for doing wrong was might," 



the expression "corby messenger" had a more sinister 

 meaning, associated with coming strife and bloodshed, with 

 its attendant glut of carrion ; and in the days of Howell Dda, 

 or Owain Glyndwr, the Ravens of the Dee valley must 

 have chanted their hoarse requiem over many a stricken 

 field, of which they had, perhaps, been looked upon as the 

 forerunners. 



According to the Rev. Charles Swainson's Folk-lore of 

 British Eirds^ " Woden was called Hrafna-gud^ or the 

 Ravens' God, because he was supposed to have two ravens, 

 Hugin and Munin (Mind and Memory), which he sent out 

 over the world to get intelligence : when they returned 

 they sat on his shoulders, and told him all they had seen 

 and heard. Hence the raven was held in high honour by 

 the Norseman, and its form transferred to their standards, 

 the most famous of which bore the name of Landeyda i.e. 

 Land ravager.' It was said to have been woven and 

 embroidered in one noon-tide by the daughters of Regner 

 Lodbrok, son of Sigurd, that dauntless warrior who chanted 

 his death song while perishing in a horrible pit filled with 

 deadly serpents. If the Danish arms were destined to 

 defeat, the raven hung his head and drooped his wings ; if 

 victory was to attend them, he stood erect and soaring. 

 The Vikings also, following Noah's example, used the 

 raven as a discoverer of land. When uncertain of their 

 course, they let one loose, and steered the vessel in his track, 

 deeming that the land lay in the direction of his flight ; if 

 he returned to the ship it was supposed to be at a distance." 

 A Raven coming from over sea, therefore, must sometimes 

 have been the precursor of an invasion, and anything but 

 a welcome messenger to the Early Britons. 



The curse of Noah, that fell upon the Raven as a 



