Have you heard the Northern Raven’s basso profundo roiling out from the darkness of woods or through a shroud of fog along a wild shore? Touched with mystery, its call seems to come from the very heart of Nature. I know of no other bird so steeped in myth, history and legend. Ranging across the entire northern hemisphere, the Northern Raven has influenced a unique number and variety of cultures.
Where I live along the coast in the Pacific Northwest, the Native People have imbued the Raven with supernatural powers. It is a central figure in their creation myths and celebrated in their extraordinary art forms for its distinctive design, its sagacious nature and magical powers. For centuries, even millennia, these proud peoples have been have told wonderful stories about this bird.
In this engaging book, Boria Sax examines an equally powerful collection of Raven myths among the British and, in doing so, arrives at some remarkable conclusions. His narrative, not unlike a detective story, reveals to us that the making of myths is an ongoing process, not just something of the remote past. He demonstrates convincingly that far from being an ancient legend, the myth predicting that Britain will fall if ravens leave the Tower of London, is of very recent origin. His investigations also show however that this belief probably evolved from, or at least was influenced by, a thirteenth-century legend of Bran the Blessed. As Londoners confronted terrible new weapons during the Second World War, they looked to the ravens, spiritual descendents of Bran, to protect them from defeat.
As in his book Crow, Boria Sax contributes significantly to our understanding of how this species affects and defines our thinking and culture. The mythic status of ravens among many people today from streets or London to the tundra is a reminder that species sharing our environment are far more than a collection of weights, dimensions and distribution maps. Boria Sax has not only clarified history, but, with his review of the Raven’s symbolic presence in Britain, he has revealed it as an enduring metaphor for survival through adversity. By protecting the Raven, we are also sustaining ourselves.Artist and Author of Ravens, Crows, Magpies and Jays
Co-Author with John Marzluff of In the Company of Crows and Ravens