Tower ravens
The Tower Ravens are at least seven common ravens that are kept in the Tower of London .
history
According to legend, this has been happening for centuries, but the first written evidence of ravens in the tower can only be found towards the end of the 19th century. Over the years, numerous legends began to form which, as an invented tradition, attributed a tradition to the ravens for many centuries.
The first picture of a raven in the tower dates from 1883. In a brochure entitled The Pictorial World on the Tower of London , which shows a drawing of the chapel in the tower, a raven is shown as a decorative element, but no further details are given in the accompanying text is received. The first recorded written mention of the ravens is from 1895, where they are mentioned in the October issue of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals magazine . Two ravens are mentioned, one of them named Jenny , who would have molested a house cat. Why the ravens came to the tower, whether as pets of some residents or as a dramatic effect of the tourism industry, can no longer be proven in retrospect. However, in a place like the Tower, known as the prison and site of torture and execution, the ravens quickly became a symbol of the place's gritty character.
In the 1898 book Birds of London , WH Hudson mentions that ravens have been kept in the Tower for many years, which is unusual as wild ravens have long been extinct in London. According to his information, Hudson's descriptions are based on assumptions and cannot be confirmed by other sources.
The third picture of a raven, by HE Tidmarsh , shows a raven near the memorial for the executed on Tower Green. It picks up on a centuries-old tradition that links ravens to executions. The image was successful enough to be reproduced on a postcard and a few years later in Cassel's Magazine .
The first detailed description of the ravens comes from the Japanese author Natsume Sōseki from his novel London Tower (1905, 倫敦塔, Rondon-tō). Sōseki had visited the tower in 1900. In addition to his work as a writer, Sōseki was one of the leading experts on English literature and culture in Japan at the turn of the century. In his novel he places the ravens, the princes in the tower and the executions in the tower in a close context, in which the ravens symbolize the executions. For Sōseki, the executed turn into ravens.
Legend
According to legend, Charles II ordered the animals to be killed when his astronomer John Flamsteed (1646–1719) discovered their droppings on his telescope . However, when he was told a legend that the White Tower, the monarchy and the entire kingdom would perish if the ravens ever left the Tower, he let himself be dissuaded. The legend was first recorded in writing in 1944.
Ravens today
To prevent the birds from flying away, one of their wings is clipped . This disturbs the balance of the birds so that they can no longer fly long distances. This is done by the Ravenmaster ("Raven Master"), who is provided by the Yeomen Warders . The ravens are fed fresh meat from the nearby Smithfield Market . Between February and July 2006, the ravens were relocated to the inside of the tower for some time out of fear of the so-called " bird flu " ( H5N1 ).
Until October 2008, six ravens lived in the tower, including three female ( Hugine, Munin and Branwen ) and three male (Gwyllum, Thor and Baldrick). The latter came to the Tower in spring 2005 and was named after the character of the same name from the television series Blackadder . In October 2008 another four ravens were purchased, three of them male (Gundulf, Bran and Colin) and one female (Fleur). In March 2018, however, the oldest Rabin Munin died, who will be replaced by a new raven in the course of 2018 [obsolete] .
literature
- Boria Sax: How Ravens Came to the Tower of London . In: Society and Animals . tape 15 , no. 3 , 2007, ISSN 1063-1119 , p. 269–283 , doi : 10.1163 / 156853007X217203 ( online: PDF, 2.98 MB ).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sax p. 269
- ↑ Sax p. 274
- ↑ a b c d Sax p. 270
- ↑ a b Sax p. 275
- ↑ Sax p. 272
- ↑ hrp.org.uk: The ravens , accessed October 28, 2008
- ↑ http://www.camelotintl.com/tower_site/ravens/legend.html
- ↑ Sax p. 282
- ↑ a b https://web.archive.org/web/20131004224028/http://www.hrp.org.uk/Resources/New%20raven.pdf
- ↑ Ravenmaster on Twitter . In: Twitter . ( twitter.com [accessed March 29, 2018]).