tradition

European folklore

Traditions

A loose family of popular beliefs and stories across Europe, not a single doctrine.

Also known as folk belief

Meetings in this tradition's context

Raven is associated with Prophecy.
In various European folk beliefs a raven’s appearance or cry can be read as an omen, often of death. That is a different meeting from the Norse pairing with Odin, and should not be folded into it.
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Raven is associated with Death.
The same European folk reading that treats the raven as an omen often takes the omen to be of a death. The pairing is local custom, not a zoological fact.
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Salt is associated with Offerings.
Salt appears in European household and covenant customs as a thing given or shared. The uses are local and should not be read as one church.
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Eye is associated with Luck.
Around the Mediterranean and in later Europe, a look can be said to blight luck. The “evil eye” is a folk harm, not the wedjat.
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Eye is associated with Divination.
Seeing signs with the eye is ordinary; calling a glance itself a technique of harm is a specific folk claim.
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Seven is associated with Luck.
European folk speech treats seven as a lucky count. That is not Ptolemy’s planetary seven, even when the number looks the same.
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Luck is associated with Gold.
Folk speech treats gold as a lucky find. The metal’s price and the luck-charm are different jobs.
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Red is associated with Luck.
Some European and later popular customs treat red as protective or lucky. That is not Mexica ritual color and not alchemical fire.
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Omen is associated with Raven.
European folk belief can treat a raven’s cry as an omen. That is a bird-omen, not Huginn and not a Mesopotamian eclipse series.
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Omen is associated with Crow.
Folk speech often lets crow stand in for raven as a bird of ill luck. The blur is English; the two birds remain two animals.
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Charm is associated with Luck.
A worn or spoken charm is often a bid to court or fend luck. Folk speech stores the two together; a temple oracle is another institution.
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Charm is associated with Eye.
Mediterranean and later European charms against a blighting glance are one local use of a small made thing. They are not the wedjat.
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Crow resembles Raven.
Crow and raven are related corvids. Folk omen-speech often blurs them; zoology and Norse Huginn do not.
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Crow is associated with Death.
European folk speech can treat a crow as a death-bird. The omen is local custom, not Tlingit Raven the creator.
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Black is associated with Death.
European mourning has used black cloth. The custom is local; it is not Egyptian green Osiris and not a proof that night is death.
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Black is associated with Raven.
The bird’s color is the ordinary reason folk speech calls it a night-bird. Color is not a Norse Huginn.
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Luck is associated with Charm.
Luck is often courted with a small made thing. The courtship is folk technique, not a natal inclination.
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European dragon is historically related to Serpent.
European dragons inherit older serpent-combat stories. A wyrm is not automatically a Chinese lóng and not Quetzalcoatl.
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Owl is associated with Prophecy.
Some European folk beliefs treat an owl’s cry as a death-omen. That is not Athena’s bird and not a universal night-wisdom.
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Owl is associated with Death.
The same folk reading often takes the omen to be of a death. Local custom, not a zoological fact and not Egyptian night-theology.
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European dragon is associated with Fire.
Later European dragons burn. A story-beast, not a Chinese rain-lóng.
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Owl is associated with Shadow.
The bird hunts in low light. Night-omen folklore uses that fact; Athena’s owl on a coin is another fact.
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Eighteenth-century Europe

Mandrake is associated with Charm.
Later European witchcraft books make the forked root a little body and a charm. That literature is not Dioscorides.
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