Ravens of the Tower of London

A group[lower-alpha 1] of at least six captive ravens are resident at the Tower of London.[3] Their presence is traditionally believed to protect The Crown and the Tower; a superstition holds that "if the Tower of London ravens are lost or fly away, the Crown will fall and Britain with it."[3] Some historians, including the Tower's official historian, believe the "Tower's raven mythology is likely to be a Victorian flight of fantasy".[4] The earliest known reference to captive ravens at the Tower is an illustration from 1883.[5]

Jubilee and Munin, two of the Tower's ravens in 2016[1]

Historically, wild ravens were common throughout Britain, even in towns; the Tower was within their natural range. When they were exterminated from much of their traditional range, including London, they could only exist at the Tower in captivity and with official support. The Tower ravens are tended to by the Ravenmaster of the Yeomen Warders. Local legend puts the origin of the captive raven population at the time of King Charles II (reigned 1660–85). Some of the ravens at the Tower were specially bred in Somerset.[1][6]

History

Origins of the legend

The earliest legend that connects the Tower with a raven is the euhemerised Welsh tale of the war against the Irish leader Matholwch who had mistreated the princess Branwen. Branwen's brother Brân the Blessed (King of the Britons) ordered his followers to cut off his head and bury it beneath The White Hill (upon which the Tower now stands) facing out towards France as a talisman to protect Britain from foreign invasion.[5]

Brân is the modern Welsh word for raven and the magical and protective qualities of ravens are attested throughout Celtic mythology. The knowledge that Brân's head was buried beneath the White Hill would have served as protective reassurance in the Celtic tradition, just as modern ideas about the presence of ravens does. As such, it is likely to have its origins in British folklore.[7]

Later legends
A view (c. 1900) of Tower Green, where historically a temporary scaffold was sometimes erected for executions, although these were usually carried out on Tower Hill outside the castle. Before the 20th century, there were seven executions on Tower Green.[8]

It was said that at the execution of Anne Boleyn in 1536, "Even the ravens of the Tower sat silent and immovable on the battlements and gazed eerily at the strange scene. A Queen about to die!"[9] The ravens of the Tower behaved much worse during the execution of Lady Jane Grey in 1554, purportedly "pecking the eyes from the severed head" of the queen.[10]

In his article "How Ravens Came to the Tower of London", American author Boria Sax came to the conclusion that "the ravens were originally brought in to dramatise the alleged site of executions at the Tower".[10]

One legend attributes the start of the tradition of keeping ravens with clipped wings in the Tower of London to Charles II and to his royal astronomer John Flamsteed, although there are versions of the legend that differ in their details.[11] According to one legend, John Flamsteed complained to Charles II that wild ravens were flying past his telescope and making it harder for him to observe the sky from his observatory in the White Tower. Flamsteed requested that the birds be removed, but Charles II refused to comply with this request.[10][11]

Another variation of this legend says that it was Charles II himself who disliked the wild ravens' droppings falling onto the telescope. The conversation with his astronomer that supposedly followed decided the fate not only of the ravens, but also of Greenwich, where the Greenwich Observatory was commissioned by the King in 1675. In this version of the legend the King complained:

"These ravens must go!" he said. "But, Sire, it is very unlucky to kill a raven," replied Flamstead, "If you do that the Tower will fall and you will lose your kingdom, having only just got it back!" Charles, being a pragmatist, thought for a moment and said: "The Observatory must go to Greenwich and the ravens can stay in the Tower."[10]

Yet another legend attributes the appearance of ravens in the Tower to the Great Fire of London in 1666. Wild ravens, as well as pigs and kites, were the biggest scavengers in medieval London.[12] Allegedly after the fire, survivors started persecuting ravens for scavenging, but Flamsteed explained to Charles II that killing all ravens would be a bad omen, and that the kingdom would not outlive the last killed raven. Charles II then ordered six birds to be kept at the Tower.[13]

Wild ravens in London
Main article: Common raven

Wild ravens are native to Britain (and most other parts of the Northern Hemisphere), although in recent times breeding populations are mostly restricted to the wilder western upland areas of the British Isles.[14] It is quite likely that ravens lived in and around the Tower centuries ago, because until the 16th century, ravens lived in close proximity to people as well as in wild areas; they were welcomed in towns because their scavenging habits of feeding helped keep the streets clean. However, in later years wild ravens were viewed as a threat to livestock, and during the 19th century they were eliminated in many areas by systematic hunting and shooting.[15]

The last time ravens nested in the wild in London was in Hyde Park in 1826, but the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds reported in 2004 that ravens had been observed nesting in the Home Counties around London, as close as 30 miles from the Tower.[16]

Ravens in the Tower of London, from London Town (1883)

The first two known depictions of ravens in the Tower of London both date from the year 1883. One is in a special edition of the newspaper The Pictorial World and the other is from the children's Book London Town,[17] written by Felix Leigh and illustrated by Thomas Crane and Elizabeth Houghton.[18]:50–53

Sax found the one early mention of importation of captive ravens in the 1918 book The Tower from Within by George Younghusband. Younghusband stated that the ravens were provided by the 4th Earl of Dunraven (1841–1926). The second Earl of Dunraven had been a patron of the Druidic scholar, poet, and forger Iolo Morganwg, who convinced the family that their castle in Glamorgan had been the original residence of the raven-god Bran, actually an early king. The Earls may have thought of the ravens as avatars of Bran, and wished to assert a spiritual claim over the Tower.[18]:36–40

Geoffrey Parnell, the official Tower of London historian and a member of the Royal Armouries staff, also believes that the allegedly ancient history of captive ravens at the Tower is just a legend that was created during the Victorian era. And during Parnell's research, despite the superstition that the Crown depends on the continued presence of the ravens, "[he] has found the blunt statement in the records 'there are none left' – and yet the monarchy and the tower have more or less survived".[4] This alludes to a period right before the reopening of the Tower after World War II, when the only surviving ravens, the mated pair Mabel and Grip, disappeared from the Tower, perhaps eloping to a nearby wood. The story of their escape appeared in several local American papers.[18]:80–84

Dr Parnell also believes that the first captive ravens may have been introduced to the Tower as pets of the staff. After "The Raven" the famous narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe was first published in January 1845, the Western world became fascinated with the birds.[4]

Japanese novelist and scholar Natsume Sōseki visited the Tower in 1900. He wrote an account published in 1906 reporting a total of six ravens at the Tower as a central focus during and following an execution at the site. It was noted, however, that Sōseki's writing style "blends fantasy, history, and present experience."[19]

World War II

The first reference to an early version of the legend that Britain will fall if the ravens leave the Tower comes from July 1944, when ravens were used as unofficial spotters for enemy bombs and planes during the Blitz of World War II.[18]:62–73 During the Blitz, all but three of the ravens died from either bombing or stress; the survivors were Gripp, his mate Mabel and another raven named Pauline.[20] Mabel and Gripp soon "disapeared", however.

After this, Winston Churchill, then prime minister, ordered more ravens to bring the flock back to the correct size. The Tower ravens are enlisted as soldiers of the Kingdom and were issued attestation cards in the same way as soldiers and police. As with soldiers, they can be dismissed for unsatisfactory conduct.[12][21]

Subsequent events

Today the Tower's ravens are one of the attractions for tourists visiting the City of London.[4] However, visitors are advised not to feed the birds and warned that a raven will bite if it feels threatened.[11]

Since 1987, the Tower ravens have been the subject of a successful captive breeding programme. For example, over time, 17 chicks were successfully hatched and raised by a pair of ravens known as "Charlie" and "Rhys".[3]

In 1995, raven Charlie came to an unhappy end: he startled a bomb-sniffing dog, and the dog grabbed the raven with his mouth. According to a police spokesman, "the bird probably died of shock".[22]

While visiting the Tower in 2003,[23] Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, is reported to have been taken aback by the verbal skills of one of the birds; Thor greeted each person in his entourage with a "Good morning!".[24]

During the global spread of H5N1 virus ("bird flu") in 2006, the ravens of the Tower were taken inside and lived in "custom-built aviaries".[25]

Raven Jubilee was presented to the Queen to mark the Diamond Jubilee in 2012, and later released in the Tower, bringing the total number to eight.[6]

In May 2013, two Tower ravens were killed by a red fox that managed to infiltrate the grounds, the only fox attack inside the walls ever recorded. This reduced the raven population to the minimum number of six.[26] Upgraded security measures were included in the plans for a major refurbishment of the raven accommodations, funded by the independent Historic Royal Palaces organisation.[26]

Appointed in 2011, current Ravenmaster Christopher Skaife was caring for seven of the birds in 2018.[27] He has reduced the amount of clipping of the wings and feathers by a third to allow the ravens to fly, instead of merely hopping or gliding. He has allowed one of the birds, Merlina, to fly to the wharf on the Thames, but she always returns due to her bonding with her keeper.[28]

During Skaife's tenure, only one raven, Muninn, has escaped, but was captured by a member of the public.[27]

On St. George's Day (23 April) 2019, four chicks were hatched from ravens Huginn and Muninn (named after Odin's mythical ravens), the first to do so at the Tower since 1989. One of the chicks remains at the Tower and has been named George, in reference to the date the hatching began.[29][30]

On January 13, 2021 the Tower of London announced that Merlina, known as "Queen of the Tower Ravens",[31] had not been seen at the Tower grounds for several weeks, leading the Ravenmaster to believe she has passed away.[32] A statement released on Twitter reads:[33]

We now have 7 ravens here at the Tower — one more than the required 6, so we don’t have any immediate plans to fill Merlina’s vacancy. However in time we hope that a new chick from our breeding programme will be up to the formidable challenge of continuing her legacy.

— The Tower of London (@TowerOfLondon)

Care and diet
The ravens' aviary in 2004

The ravens cannot fly far because the flight feathers on one wing are clipped. With a single wing clipped, they can only fly short distances to perch. Otherwise, as Boria Sax writes, tongue-in-cheek:

The ravens are now treated almost like royalty. Like the Royals, the ravens live in a palace and are waited on by servants. They are kept at public expense, but in return they must show themselves to the public in settings of great splendour. So long as they abide by certain basic rules, neither Royals nor ravens have to do anything extraordinary. If the power in question is political and diplomatic, the Royals now have hardly more than the ravens. But the word "power" here can also mean the aura of glamour and mystery which at times envelops both ravens and monarchs.[18]:17

Each Tower raven has a different coloured band on one leg, to make it easier to identify individual birds.[34] Ravens in captivity in the Tower grounds have had lifespans of over 40 years.[35]

The Tower's ravens are given individual names, and are all under the care of the Yeomen Warders. The diet of the ravens is carefully maintained. In 2007, the Ravenmaster Derek Coyle commented: "I buy fresh meat from Smithfield – liver, lamb, beef, chicken. And occasionally when I’m at my own place in Suffolk someone will give me some rabbit that’s been killed. If I see roadkill on the road, and it’s not been too badly mangled, I normally put it in a black bag and bring it back here. I give them biscuits as well, soaked in blood from the meat that I buy. And in winter I get them capsules of cod liver oil. I know they’re getting as much vitamins and oil as they possibly can. That’s why they look so healthy."

Their diet consists of raw meat daily, usually liver, lambs' hearts and beef or pork trimming, and every other day includes boiled egg with shell and blood-soaked bird biscuits. Occasionally, rabbit parts with fur are added for roughage. Once a week the birds are given a thorough check-over, and once every third week the lifting feathers on their right wings are trimmed to prevent them from flying away.[36]

Raven stories

Londoners tend to be fond of the ravens, but sometimes an individual bird will fall out of favour because of inappropriate behaviour. For example, "Raven George" lost his appointment to the Crown, and was retired to Wales for attacking and destroying TV aerials. A special decree was issued about the incident:

On Saturday 13th September 1986, Raven George, enlisted 1975, was posted to the Welsh Mountain Zoo. Conduct unsatisfactory, service therefore no longer required.[34]

In 1996, two more ravens fell out of favour and were dismissed from the Tower for "conduct unbecoming Tower residents."[37]

Despite having their flight feathers clipped on one wing, sometimes the Tower ravens desert their duties. In 1981, Grog the raven decided to leave the surroundings of the Tower for those of a pub, after 21 years of faithful service to the Crown.[11] In contrast, a raven named Mabel was kidnapped from the Tower soon after World War II, a mystery that has never been solved.[3]

Another story concerns the two ravens named "James Crow" and "Edgar Sopper". James Crow, who was a much-loved and long-lived raven, had died. After noticing the commotion surrounding the other raven's death, Edgar Sopper decided he could "play dead" in order to bring more attention to himself. His trick was so convincing that the ravenmaster fully believed that Edgar Sopper had died. When the ravenmaster picked up the "corpse", Edgar bit the man's finger and "flapped off croaking huge raven laughs".[21] Likewise, "Merlin" has since been known for eliciting a commotion from visitors by occasionally playing dead.[38]

In 1990 a chaplain named Norman Hood died in his chamber on the Tower grounds. Former Assistant Ravenmaster Tom Trent has reported that the ravens appeared to be aware of the death, for they soon gathered on the Tower Green near the chapel, called out, and then became quiet, as though to pay their respects. Corvids have been widely reported to hold "funerals", in which they mourn and then cluster around a dead bird in silence.[18]:103

See also

References
Notes
  1. A group of ravens is called an "unkindness" or a "conspiracy"[2]
Sources
  1. "A Guide to the Tower Ravens" (PDF). Historic Royal Palaces: Tower of London. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
  2. Welsh, Jennifer (8 February 2011). "Pulling Out Feathers: Group Living Stresses Ravens". Live Science. Retrieved 26 June 2018.
  3. "The guardians of the Tower". The Tower of London.
  4. Kennedy, Maev (15 November 2004). "Tower's raven mythology may be a Victorian flight of fantasy". The Guardian. London.
  5. Sax, Boria (2007). "Medievalism, Paganism, and the Tower Ravens". The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies. 9 (1): 272–274. doi:10.1558/pome.v9i1.62.
  6. "Tower of London's Jubilee raven released". BBC News. 26 December 2012. Retrieved 21 February 2016.
  7. "Ravens in Celtic Mythology". Aves Noir. 1998.
  8. Edward Impey & Geoffrey Parnell (2000). The Tower of London: The Official Illustrated History. Merrell Publishers in association with Historic Royal Palaces. p.94
  9. George Younghusband (1918). The Tower from Within. William Brendon and Son. p. 134.
  10. Sax, Boria (20 April 2007). "How Ravens Came to the Tower of London" (PDF). animalsandsociety.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 July 2011.
  11. "The ravens. The guardians of the Tower". The Tower of London. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
  12. H. V. Morton (24 December 2002). In Search of London. Da Capo Press. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-306-81132-6.
  13. Marzluff, John M.; Angell, Tony; Ehrlich, Paul R. (2005). In the Company of Crows and Ravens. Yale University. p. 142. ISBN 0300122551.
  14. "Raven". Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Retrieved 4 December 2010.
  15. McCarthy, Michael (23 January 2006). "Ravens, the literary birds of death, come back to life in Britain". The Independent. London. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
  16. "Wild ravens could nest once more at Tower". Daily Telegraph. London. 21 June 2004. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
  17. Felix Leigh, Thomas Crane & Ellen Houghton (1883). "London Town". Marcus Ward & Co. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
  18. Sax, Boria. City of Ravens: London, Its Tower, and Its Famous Birds. London: Duckworth, 2011.
  19. Sax, Boria (1 July 2007). "How Ravens Came to the Tower of London". Society & Animals. 15 (3): 269–283. doi:10.1163/156853007X217203. ISSN 1063-1119.
  20. Skaife, Christopher (2018). Ravenmaster : Life with the Ravens at the Tower of London. HarperCollins Canada, Limited. p. 214. ISBN 9781443455930.
  21. A Short History of the Tower of London. The Tower of London. August 2008. ISBN 9781443704854.
  22. de Logu, Simona (23 August 1995). "Dog kills Tower of London raven". UPI. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  23. Waugh, Paul (24 June 2003). "Putin visits Britain and is accorded all royal pomp, but..." The Independent. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
  24. Iseard, Nicola (1 February 2009). "My life in travel". The Observer. London.
  25. "Bird Flu Threat Sends Tower of London Ravens Indoors". Fox News. 21 February 2006.
  26. Bryant, Ben (27 October 2013). "Tower of London upgrades security after fox kills two ravens". ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
  27. Faris, Nick (30 September 2018). "Why the Tower of London has a ravenmaster — a man charged with keeping at least six ravens at the castle at all times". National Post. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  28. "The Brilliant, Playful, Bloodthirsty Raven". Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  29. "Tower gets first raven chicks in 30 years". 17 May 2019. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
  30. Hardy, Jack (17 May 2019). "Tower of London saved from prophesied demise after first ravens in 30 years hatch inside". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
  31. Uria, Daniel (14 January 2021). "Tower of London raven presumed dead after multi-week absence". UPI.
  32. "Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 13 January 2021.
  33. "Bad omen? Tower of London raven missing, feared dead". the Guardian. 14 January 2021. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  34. "THE TOWER RAVENS".
  35. Boarman, W.I.; B. Heinrich; Poole, A.; Gill, F. (1999). "Common Raven (Corvus corax)". Birds of North America. 476: 1–32. doi:10.2173/bna.476.
  36. Stenlake, Alison (22 August 2005). "I have a great relationship with the birds". BBC News. Retrieved 31 October 2018.
  37. "The Tower Ravens". europeforvisitors.com. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011.
  38. Wakefield, Mary (22 October 2016). "Just how clever are ravens? I asked at the Tower of London". The Spectator. Retrieved 24 May 2018. When she’s bored, Merlin plays with the tourists. She’ll act dead, [...] lying on her back, feet in the air, until they scream and panic and run for help.
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