Boria
Sax, Ph. D.
25
Franklin Ave, Apt. 2F
White
Plains, NY 10601-3819
Phone:
(914) 946-6735
Email:
Vogelgreif@aol.com
Web
Site: http://www.boriasax.com
Book Proposal
Title: City of Ravens: How ravens came to the
Tower of London, why they stayed, what they tell us about nature and humankind
Authorship: Written by Boria
Sax, with an introduction and illustrations by Tony Angell.
Expected Length: About 200
pages of text (ca. 50,000 words), plus many illustrations.
Date of
Completion:
The Manuscript is essentially complete, though subject to revision.
Summary:
With about three million visitors per
year, the Tower of London is one of the most popular tourist attractions in
London or the world, and the ravens rival the Crown Jewels and the Yeoman
Warders as its most popular feature. The ravens have a special intimacy with
visitors, for whom they show off and, some believe, even pose for cameras. Most
of the time, however, they play, quarrel, or just enjoy the company of one
another. Their behavior can be so lighthearted that visitors almost forget they
are captive, so expressive that we almost forget they are not human. According
to the guidebooks, Charles II (reigned 1660-1685) ordered that the wings of
seven ravens be clipped, so they could not fly away, and their successors strut
around on the field behind the White Tower till this day.
This is the first book to reconstruct
the history of the famous ravens and how they came to the Tower of London. It
is based on extensive research in British archives, as well as on many
conversations with the Ravenmaster, the Yeoman Warders, the historians at the
Tower and others. The book is also the story of the author’s personal quest to uncover
the sources of a modern myth. Finally, it is a meditation on the ways in which
animals are used by human beings in the construction of personal, and
collective, identity.
The author has found that the ravens at
the Tower are not ancient and were not domesticated under Charles II, but their
true story has more high drama than the standard narrative. They were brought
to the Tower to dramatize tales of Gothic horror told to tourists in the last
decades of the nineteenth century. The legend that Britain will fall if the
ravens leave the Tower dates only to the end of World War II. It was inspired
by the use of ravens as unofficial spotters for enemy planes and bombs during
the Blitz.
The ravens can still connect the British
with both their history and with the natural world. For the approximately 130
years that the ravens have been at the Tower, they have been variously viewed
as symbols of cruelty, avatars of fate, and cuddly national pets. In
contemporary times, the legend that makes the ravens protectors of the nation
may be given an ecological interpretation.
The book concludes with an argument that
the ravens should continue to be kept as a colony at the Tower but no longer
deprived of flight. It will prove impossible to keep them with clipped wings
when, as now seems inevitable, wild ravens return to London. Furthermore, the
adventures of the ravens that can move at liberty may provide a more resonant
symbol for the British nation.
Pre-Publication
Endorsement:
“Boria Sax traces the history of the ravens in the
Tower of London, with accurate scholarship and engaging stories. Sax, who
understands both history and ravens as do few others, as shown how
the legend that Britain will fall if the ravens leave the Tower stems not from
Charles II but from the bombs and breweries during World War II. He reveals
both the symbolic power and the true magic of the Tower Ravens today.”
John
Marzluff,
Author,
Avian Conservation and Ecology in an
Urbanizing World, In the Company of
Crows and Ravens
Narrative
Outline:
Introduction
by Tony Angell
This
introduction compares the ravens in the
PART ONE: WHAT
THE RAVENS TELL
This
is an introductory chapter describing the fascination that the ravens in the
Tower have had for visitors from the Japanese author Natsume Soseki in the
early nineteenth century to the present.
This
chapter tells the story of how the author began to investigate the Tower
Ravens, and then examines the lore of the ravens as myth, tradition, and
folklore.
This
chapter looks at the ravens in the context of Victorian culture, which was
fascinated with medieval and esoteric themes.
This
chapter looks at ravens and their importance in British culture and mythology,
from the Celts and Romans to modern times.
V. Bran
the Blessed
This
chapter tells of the Celtic raven-god Bran, who was the ultimate inspiration
for the institution of the Tower Ravens.
VI.
A Shrine for Martyrs
This
chapter tells of how the
This
chapter tells how ravens were driven from
This
chapter reconstructs how the first ravens may have been brought to the Tower by
the Earls of Dunraven in the latter part of the nineteenth century.
This
chapter tells how ravens were used unofficially as spotters for enemy planes
during World War II, and reconstructs how the legend that
PART THREE: THE
RAVENS, TODAY AND TOMORROW
X. National
Pets
This chapter looks at the way the Tower Ravens went
from being symbols of doom to national pets in the latter twentieth century.
XI. In the Beat of a Raven’s Wing
This chapter looks at the institution of the Tower
Ravens in the perspective of postmodern theory and literature
XII. The Ravens and the Crown
This chapter looks at the mystique of the Tower
Ravens and the Monarchy they represent, in light of massive changes in
contemporary British society.
Epilogue: Will
This chapter proposes how a nest of live ravens can
be maintained at the
Intended
Audience:
This book will appeal to the following
audiences, in order of probable commercial importance:
1)
The millions of tourists who visit the ravens at the
2)
Scholars of human-animal relations, a field where the author has already
published extensively and is well known.
3)
Readers who are interested in the development of myth, whether on a scholarly
or popular (i.e., New Age) level.
Articles Adapted
from the Book:
The
author has published several articles and encyclopedia entries adapted from the
material in this book. Two articles published in refereed journals are as
follows:
"How
Ravens Came to the Tower of London." Society and Animals. 15.3
(2007b): 267-81.
"Medievalism,
Paganism, and the Tower Ravens." The
Pomegranate:The International Journal of Pagan Studies. 9.1 (2007):
62-77.
About the
Author:
Boria
Sax has a doctorate in Intellectual History and German from SUNY Buffalo. He has
worked extensively in online education, for which he received the prestigious
Sloan-C 2002 award for “Online Learning Effectiveness” as well as
the HUSUS award for the "best new course" of 2007. He is also
founder of the organization Nature in Legend and Story, dedicated “to promote
understanding of traditional bonds between human beings and the natural world.”
Two of his books, Animals in the Third
Reich (Continuum 2000) and The
Mythical Zoo (ABC-CLIO 2002), have been named as “Outstanding Academic
Titles” of the year by the journal Choice.
His books have been translated into French, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, and
About the
Illustrations:
Many of the illustrations shall be from
photographs taken by the author, particularly of the