A Gathering of Crows

One crow for sorrow,
Two crows for joy,
Three crows for a girl,
Four for a boy,
Five crows for silver,
Six crows for gold,
Seven crows for a secret never to be told.


I did not get this poem from the counting crows song. I didn't even hear that song until a couple of years after I read this poem in the graphic novel The Crow. It has existed since long before that book.

Corvus is part of the crows' scientific name. It is actually latin for raven, but i have found that it is a popular name for people who love crows or ravens to use. Many use it to mean crow--so even though it means raven in latin-- in the world of internet nicks it can mean either raven or crow. I also go by other words for crow: kangi, karasu, koronae, voronae, and rocas. But Corvus is my real name, so i stick with it.

Crows, as you may have guessed, are very important to me. They have always been guids, teachers, and friends to me. I consider crows my brothers and sisters. The reason for this is that the crow is my spirit or totem animal, a shamanistic concept. Go to Bearwalker's homepage for more information on shamanism and totem animals.

I have had some people ask me to interpret dreams or omens that had something to do with crows. some have mistakenly taken my section on crows as evil omens as truth. so i have a new section about crows as omens in modern times. Check it out.

I am completely enthralled by all that has anything to do with crows, and ravens. This part of my webpage is dedicated to crows and their cousins. I hope to have many stories, poems, and pictures about crows here and some links to some trully interesting crow sights. Hopefully all of you out there will help me in my endevor by sending me submitions and letting me know about where i can find more information on crows.

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Greek Mythology
Norse Mythology
Native American Stories
Omens of Evil
Poe's "The Raven"
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Page Two of A Gathering of Crows
A Personal Story
Stories of The Brothers Grimm
Aesop's Fables

Crows in Greek Mythology

In Greek mythology the gods often have birds or animals that are associated with them. Phoibos Apollo is sometimes associated with the crow, other times the raven. I am not sure why there is this inconsistency, but because this page is for crows i will use crows in the following two stories. Both stories give reasons why the crow, or raven, is black.
The Birth of Hermes
<Coronis

THE BIRTH OF HERMES

Hermes is the child of Zues, father of the gods, and Maia, a daughter of Atlas who holds up the earth. He is the gods' messenger and among the gods he is the shrewdest and most cunning. He has also been a source of mischief since the day he was born:

The babe was born at the break of day,
And ere the night fell he had stolen away
Apollo's herds.

When Apollo found his heard of beautiful white cows gone he asked his crows who had stolen them. The crows replied, "It is the twelth god of Olympos, but a day old, who has spirited your herd away."

This made Apollo angry, "You lying wretches, there is only eleven gods of Olympos. I will punish you for your lies." So he turned the crows, which had been white as ivory, black as ashes.

Phoibos then went in search of the cows. He soon came upon a cave where Maia sat with the baby Hermes on her lap as the child plated on a lyre which he had just invented, using a tortoise's shell. Apollo askes Maia, "Who is this child, so clever as to make such a marvelous thing at such a young age?"

"This is Hermes, your new brother, and the twelth Olympian."

It was then that the bright archer knew that the crows had told the truth and he pointed an accusing finger at the baby. "So you stole my lovely white herd, you must give them back to me immediatly."

Hermes answered, in a soothing voice, "Oh but i can not, dear brother, for i have already made a feast of the fat cows, but come and eat with me and we shall discuss things."

So Apollo ate with the clever Hermes who in order to make ammends gave Apollo the lyre and taught him to play it expertly.
Told from the memory of Corvus

CORONIS

There was a maiden in Thessaly named Coronis, of beauty so surpassing that Apollo loved her. But strangely enough she did not care long for her divine lover; she preferred a mere mortal. She did not reflect that apollo, the God of Truth, who never decieved, could not himself be deceived.

The pythian Lord of Delphi,
He has a comrade he can trust,
Staightforward, never wandering astray. It is his mind which knows all things,
Which never touches falsehood, which no one
Or god or mortal can outwit. He sees,
Whether the deed is done, or only planned.

Coronis was follish indeed to hope he would not learn of her faithlessness. It is said that the news was brought to him by his bird, the raven, then pure white with beautiful snowy plumage, and that Apollo in a fit of furious anger, and with the complete injustice the gods usually showed when they were angry, punished the faithful messenger by turning his feathers black. Of course Coronis was killed. Some say that the god did it himself, others that he got Artemis to shoot one of her unerring arrows at her.
From Edith Hamiltions Mythology

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The Ravens of Odin

Norse mythology depicted the wisest of the gods as having two ravens, one sitting on each shoulder. These ravens' names were Hugin, meaning Thought, and Munin, meaning memory. They would fly each day through out the world and tell Odin of everything that men do. It was said that instead of eating with the other gods, Odin would give his food to two monstrous wolves that sat on each side of him. He would spend his dinner instead pondering the things that his ravens told him.

Unfortunately, i do not have any specific myths about the ravens. Perhaps I shall find some in the future.

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Native American Stories

Raven plays a very important role to the Native Americans of the northwest. He is a cunning trickster who has done much for the people of the world, usually by accident as he tries to help himself.

Some people might think that Raven is pretty much the same as Crow in Native American tales, but i have heard that Crow was considered a seperate being in some tribes. Crow is an adviser and the keeper of the Law. I would love to go more in depth into that idea, but i am afraid that is all i know. I also have heard one story in which Crow and Raven are seperate beings, which i will give here from my memory.
Crow and Raven
Coyote and Crow
How Raven Helped the Ancient People

CROW AND RAVEN

Crow was the mother of seven baby crows. One day when Crow's children began crying for food Crow spoke to them saying, "I will go to the beach today and gather fat from a whale that washed on the shore. We will bring it back and make a stew." The babies cried in happy approval and Crow put a basket on her back in which to carry the fat and headed for the beach.

On the beach, Crow removed her basket and began filling it with fat. It was then that Raven came by and saw Crow's work. He watched a moment, thinking of how good that fat would taste in a stew, and devised a plan to steal it from Crow.

"Dear Crow, how good to see you. What, may I ask, are you about?"

"Hello friend Raven," she replied in greeting, "I am gathering whale fat for my seven hungry children so that we might make a stew."

"Oh Crow, that fat looks heavy, and you should not strain yourself so. Here, i will help you. Put that basket on your back and i will fill it with fat for you while you sit and rest."

"How kind of you Raven. It is hard work gathering food for my children. I will appreciate your help." So Crow put the basket on her back and sat down. Raven then, instead of filling the basket with fat, filled it with heavy rocks and hid the fat out of Crow's sight.

"There then Crow," he said when he had moved all the fat away. That is all the fat.

Crow looked about. "Oh but Raven, there is no fat left for you. You must take some of mine."

"No Crow, you have children to feed, and I am only one. Go now, your hungry children are waiting."

Crow, thinking of how kind Raven was, headed for home. On the way she marvelled at how heavy the fat was. "There must have been more than I first thought."

Raven, in the mean time, carried the fat off to his home.

When Crow got home, all her children gathered about her, anxious for their dinner. When Crow removed the basket and emptied the contents on the ground rocks, not fat, came rolling out of it.

"What cruel trick is this?" Cried the children. "Have we done some wrong, to be fed rocks for dinner?"

Crow, looking puzzled, answered, "No, but Raven must have tricked me and taken all the fat for himself. Go then to Raven's home and ask him to share some of the food with you, for he could not possibly eat it all himself."

So the seven young Crows set out for Raven's home. When they got there, they could smell the fat boiling in a stew, and saw Raven was cooking it in a great pot. "Raven!" they cried, "you stole all the fat from our mother and now have left us all hungry. Please will you not share the fat with us?"

Raven replied, "Of course children, but first we must wait for the stew to finish cooking. To pass the time you should dance and sing."

So the children began dancing and singing to pass the time. As they danced, Raven would open the lid of the pot as if to check the stew, but really he was eating bits of it. Sometimes one of the crows would ask, "Raven, has the stew finished yet?"

But Raven always replied, "Patience child, it is not done yet.

Six times the crows asked, and six times Raven replied that it was not done. When the seventh crow asked Raven if the stew was done, Raven replied, "Yes child, now the stew is done."

All the crows crowded around the pot, but when Raven lifted the lid they saw that it was empty and knew that Raven had tricked them. So they went home, hungry and disheartened.

The following stories I have copied from Idian Legends of the Pacific Northwest by Ella E. Clark

COYOTE AND CROW

Yakima

This is a curious story because it is quite like the story of The Crow and The Fox from Aesop's fables. You just need to replace Coyote with the fox and the deer fat with cheese or a piece of meat.

Coyote traveled through the country, fighting monsters and making the world ready for the new people, the Indians who were to follow. He crossed the Cascade Mountains and came into the Puget Sound country. He was hungry, very hungry.

He saw Crow sitting on the peak of a high cliff, with a ball of deer fat in his mouth. Coyote looked at Crow with this fat and thought how good it would taste. Becoming hungrier and hungrier, he wonderd how he could get the fat for himself. He thought hard. Then he laughed.

"I know what to do. I know how I can get the fat from Crow."

Then coyote came close to the bacse of the cliff and called. "Oh, Chief! I hear that you can make a good noise, a pleasing noise with your voice. You are a big chief, I know. You are a wise chief, I have heard. Let me hear your voice, Chief. I want to hear you, Cheif Crow."

Crow was pleased to be called chief. So he answered, "Caw!"

"Oh, Chief Crow," called Coyote, "that wasn't much. You can sing better than that. Sing a good song for me, Chief. I want to hear you sing loud."

Crow was pleased again. So he opened his mouth wide and called from the cliff in a loud voice, "C-a-a-w!"

Of course the ball of deer fat fell down from Crow's open mouth.

Coyote grabbed it quickly. Then he laughed.

"You are not a wise chief," said Coyote. "you are not a cief at all. I called you 'Chief' just to fool you. I wanted your deer fat. I am hungry. Now you can go hungry cecause of your foolishness."

HOW RAVEN HELPED THE ANCIENT PEOPLE
Told by a Puget Sound tribe

Long ago, near the beginning of the world, Gray Eagle was the guardian of the sun and moon and stars, of fresh water, and of fire. Gray Eagle hated people so much that he kept these things hidden. People liven in darkness, without fire and without fresh water.

Gray Eagle had a beautiful daughter, and Raven fell in love with her. At that time Raven was a handsome young man. He changed himself into a snow-white bird, and as a snow-white bird he pleased Gray Eagle's daughter. She invited him to her father's lodge.

When Raven saw the sun and the moon and the stars and fresh water hanging on the sides of Eagle's lodge, he knew what he should do. He watched for his chance to seize them when no one was looking. He stole all of them, and a brand of fire also, and flew out of the lodge through the smoke hole.

As soon a Raven got outside, he hung the sun up in the sky. It made so much light that he was able to fly far out to an island in the middle of the ocean. When the sun set, he fastened the moon up in the sky and hung the stars around in different places. By this new light he kept on flying, carrying w3ith him the fresh water and the brand of fire he had stolen.

He flew back over the land. When he had reached the right place, he dropped all the water he had stolen. It fell to the ground and thre became the source of all the fresh-water streams and lakes in the world.

Then Raven flew on, holding the brand of fire in his bill. The smoke from the fire blew ack over his white feathers and made them black. When his bill began to burn, he had to drop the firebrand. It struck rocks and went into the rocks. That is why, if you strike two stones together, fire will drop out.

Raven's feathers never became white again after they were blackened by the smoke from the firebrand. That is why Raven is now a black bird.

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Crows as Evil Omens

Crows and ravens have often been popular symbols of evil and death. They play the part nicely and are quite appropriatly dressed. They are of course scavengers and so tend to hang around dead creatures (a gathering of crows, by the way, is called a murder). Their racous caws are considered omens of death in folklore. If crows gather or caw in the vicinity of a house it is expected someone will die there soon. The idea is that all birds cary the souls to the land of the dead, or perhaps heaven, but i think a crow would be best suited for the job.
I have this little bit for informational purposes only. Crows are not really omens of death, depending on who witnesses the omen. I have a separate area for how to interpreting crows as omens

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Edgar Allen Poe
The Raven was first published in 1845 in the Amereican Review; thereafter published numerous times in the year of initial publication. It is Poe's best known poem in the U.S. and famous the world over. It has been reprinted, (here i am adding to the count!), imitated, and satirized more than any other poem by an American. I got this copy from The Heathe Anthology of American Literature, edited by Paul Lauter, copyright 1994. The annotations come from the same book.
Poe pointed out in one of his essays that the poem was a psychological study in self-torment, since the narrator knows in advance that the bird's answer will be negative and keeps on asking questions anyway.

THE RAVEN

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore-
Whle I nodded, nearly napping, sunddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, papping at my chamber door.
"'T is some visiter," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door- 5

Only this and nothing more."

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;-vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow-sorrow for the lost Lenore- 10
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore-

Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me-filled me with fantastic terrors never felt befor;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeation 15
"'T is some visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door-
Some late visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door;-

This it is and nothing more."

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
"Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore 20
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I herd you"-here I opened wide the door;-

Darkness there and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, 25
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word,
"Lenore!"
This I whispered, and an echo murmered back the word
"Lenore!"

Merely this and nothing more. 30

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I herd a tapping somewhat louder than before.
"Surely," said I, "surely that is something at my window lattice;
Let me see, then what thereat is, and this mystery explore-
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;-

;T is the wind and nothing more!"

Open here I flung the shutter, when with many a flirt and flutter
In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly dayds of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door- 40
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door-

Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
"though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven, 45
Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore-
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"

Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though it's answer little meaning-little relevancy bore; 50
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door-
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,

With such name as "Nevermore."
>

But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only 55
That one word, as if his soul in that one word hi did outpour.
Nothing farther then he uttered-not a feather then he fluttered-
Till I scarcely more than muttered "Other friends have flown before-
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before."

Then the bird said, "Nevermore." 60

Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
"Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock and store
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till this songs one burden bore-
Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore 65

Of 'Never-nevermore.'"

But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cusioned seat in front of bird, and bust and door;
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking 70
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore-
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore

Meant in croaking "Nevermore."

This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining 75
On the cusion's velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o'er,
But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light gloationg o'er,

She shall press, ah, nevermore!

Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor. 80
"Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee-by these angels he hath sent thee
Respite-respite and nepenthe from they memories of Lenore;
Quaff, oh quaff this kind mepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!"

Quothe the Raven "Nevermore."

"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil! prophet still, if bird or devil!- 85
Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted-
On this home by Horror haunted-tell me truly, I implore-
Is there-is there balm in Gilead?-Tell me, I implore!"

Quoth the Raven "Nevermore." 90

"Propet!" said I, "thing of evil!-prophet still, if bird or devil!-
By that Heaven that bends above us-by that God we both adore-
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if , within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore-
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore." 95

Quoth the Raven "Nevermore."

"Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!" I shrieked, upstarting-
"Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken!-quit the bust above my door! 100
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take they form from off my door!"

Quoth the Raven "Nevermore."

And the Raven never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming if a demon's that is dreaming, 105
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor

Shall be lifted nevermore!"

1845

Line 31: The line might mean: I was thoroughly embarrased by my assumptions about the causes of the "rapping."
Line 41: Palla Athene was the Greek goddess of wisdom. One of Poe's colleagues said that the raven on a bust of Pallas signifies the ascendancy of despair over reason.
Line 45: A cowardly knight sometimes had his head shaved as a sign of his disgrace (Mabbott).
Line 47: Relating to Pluto; thus the lower world, hellish.
Line 80: Angels.
Line 82: A legendary drink supposed to soothe the bereaved. Line 89: A complex reference, meaning: is there solace in the future? or (Biblical) is there hope for me in heaven? Literally, the prase denoted a fragrant tree grown in ancient Palestine; but there was a commercial salve in Poe's day called "Balm in Gilead," which was much like the modern Ben-Gay. Conceivably Poe is wondering whether a patent medicine might help if all else fails. Line 93: Poe's spelling of Eden; he meant heaven.

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