animal

Raven

Beings · Nature

A large black corvid that humans have used as omen, messenger, creator, and companion of gods — in different ways, in different places.

The bird is one animal. The relationships humans have made with it are not one meaning. Norse sources attach ravens to Odin as thought and memory in flight. Some European folk beliefs treat a raven’s cry as a sign of death. Tlingit narratives recorded in the early twentieth century make Raven a creator and trickster. Those are separate meetings.

Also known as ravens · corvus corax

Norse tradition

  • Raven is sacred to Odin.

    In Norse tradition Odin keeps two ravens, Huginn and Muninn, who fly the world and return with news. The bird is a working companion of that god, not a generic emblem of wisdom.

    from Snorri Sturluson · Gylfaginning, c. 1220

    sacred to · sourced · documented

  • Raven appears in Norse tradition.

    Snorri’s Gylfaginning places ravens in Odin’s household. The appearance is literary and medieval.

    from Snorri Sturluson · Gylfaginning, c. 1220

    appears in · sourced · documented

  • Memory is associated with Raven.

    Huginn and Muninn are ravens with jobs in thought and memory. The bird is the vehicle of that Norse household, not a folk omen of death.

    from Snorri Sturluson · Gylfaginning, c. 1220

    associated with · sourced · documented

European folklore

  • 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.

    associated with · interpretive · culturally specific

  • 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.

    associated with · interpretive · culturally specific

  • 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.

    associated with · interpretive · culturally specific

  • Crow resembles Raven.

    Crow and raven are related corvids. Folk omen-speech often blurs them; zoology and Norse Huginn do not.

    resembles · interpretive · culturally specific

  • 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.

    associated with · interpretive · culturally specific

Northwest Coast tradition

  • Raven is associated with Trickster.

    Tlingit narratives collected by Swanton include Raven as a being who steals daylight and rearranges the world. That is a creator-trickster cycle, not an Old World omen and not Odin’s birds.

    from John R. Swanton · Tlingit Myths and Texts, 1909

    associated with · sourced · culturally specific

  • Raven appears in Northwest Coast tradition.

    Swanton’s Tlingit collection treats Raven as a named protagonist of origin stories, not as a bird omen standing in for something else.

    from John R. Swanton · Tlingit Myths and Texts, 1909

    appears in · sourced · culturally specific

sources

  • Gylfaginning · Snorri Sturluson

    Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning, in the Prose Edda.

  • Tlingit Myths and Texts · John R. Swanton

    John R. Swanton, Tlingit Myths and Texts, BAE Bulletin 39 (1909).