BIRD LEGEND AND LIFE 



by him each morning on news-gathering journeys, and who 

 returned to him at nightfall to perch on his shoulders and 

 whisper into his ears the intelligence of the day. When news 

 of unusual importance was desired, Odin himself, in raven 

 guise, went forth to seek it. And when the Norse armies 

 went into battle they followed the raven standard — a banner 

 under which William the Conqueror fought. "If the Danish 

 arms were destined to defeat, the raven hung his head and 

 dropped his wings ; if victory was to attend them, he stood 

 erect and soaring." 



Norse navigators, when setting sail, took with them a 

 pair of ravens to be liberated and followed as guides. If 

 these birds returned, it was known that land did not lie in the 

 direction taken ; but if they did not, they were followed. The 

 discoveries of both Iceland and Greenland are attributed to 

 their leadership. 



To the Romans and Greeks, the raven was an embodied 

 god and the chief bird of omen, whose effigy was borne on 

 their banners, and whose auguries were followed with the 

 greatest confidence; while to the German mind he was His 

 Satanic Majesty .made manifest in feathers. 



Not only gods, but mortals also, are known to have as- 

 sumed raven shape — if Don Quixote be an authority — for 

 this doughty knight informs us that the great King Arthur 

 passed into raven form, not through choice, but through 

 witchcraft, and that as a raven he still lives and flies about 

 over his erstwhile kingdom, waiting to be liberated; and th^t^ 

 for this reason no Englishman would ever be guilty of taking 

 the life of one of these birds, for fear of becoming a regicide. 



In some parts of Germany these birds are believed to 

 hold the souls of the damned, while in other European sec- 

 tions wicked priests only are believed to be so reincarnated. 



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