Trade Secrets

[hvered]

I came across an article that claims burning plant material has a medicinal, even antiseptic, purpose. The practice is apparently known as smudging. http://www.greenmedinfo.com/article/med ... cteria-air

A peculiar aspect of crows' behaviour is that they smoke their feathers to get rid of annoying tics cos they're clever. Such 'decontamination' would seem to account for driving cattle over embers though it's invariably seen as a "ritual" perhaps because it isn't scientifically tested and was associated with May Day. Did humans learn this from crows or vice versa?

[TisILeclerc]

Just learned from a 'conversation' on the Megalithic Empire's Facebook page about 'tinder fungus' which I'm told was traditionally carried in a pocket since "You can actually store embers in it and carry it around." So I'm wondering if this is the origin of raven as fire-bringer, corvids being partial to 'shrooms.

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/13221 ... hfires.htm


Crows are not the only birds to play with fire. It seems that birds of prey in Australia start bushfires to drive animals and insects out.

I wouldn't be surprised though if crows carry their own boxes of matches.

[hvered]

In north American indigenous folklore, Raven brought fire to humans.

[Boreades]

Ravens are still revered as talking heads in the mythology of the Tower of London

Druidic Ravens at the Tower of London?

Well, there is a fascinating clue in a twelfth-century Welsh tale: Branwen daughter of Llyr. The story is a confusing almost hallucinogenic one, but for present purposes it should be enough to note that Bran, Branwen’s sister, has returned from an attack on Ireland with a handful of warriors. Branwen himself has been decapitated, but his head continues to interact with his men.
etc

http://www.strangehistory.net/2010/10/1 ... of-london/

‘Bran’ in Welsh means ‘raven’

[hvered]

Sounds more like a Norman than 'Druidic' story to moi. The incursion into Ireland, the Tower stronghold and of course the old Norse fascination with ravens.

[TisILeclerc]

I thought crows, ravens and rooks were used by the megalithics for a variety of reasons.

If so legends regarding these birds must have an earlier history than post conquest England.

[Boreades]

One of the tales of Aesop concerns crows, c.600BC

A thirsty crow found a pitcher of water, but the water was too far below the rim for her beak to reach. The clever crow began dropping pebbles into the pitcher, raising the water level until it reached the brim, where she could quench her thirst.

Tha gliocas an ceann an fhitich or Fice ceann na fhitich.

[TisILeclerc]

Borry, I think you missed the 'h' after the 't' in the middle of 'fhithich'

Try this one for size, from Dwelly of course:

tha fios fithich agad, you have a raven's knowledge — supposed to be supernatural; also said to cheeky children;

'Fice'? What's that? Do you mean 'Fios' - knowledge?

[TisILeclerc]

Caw, stone the crows Borry, here's one your feathered friends dropped on their way to the bottle of water. Unless it's the fossilised head of Branwen.



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -last.html

Although they do tell us that it was brought from Troy by Brutus.

And as we know Troy was in East Anglia so he didn't have too far to go.

[hvered]

Looking at some of the heraldic motifs in the library of Montacute House, the notice said 'Ralph = raven'. This seemed odd enough to check and yes, according to Wiki, the name Ralph means 'wolf counsel'

Ralph is an English, Dutch, Scandinavian and German male given name, derived from Old Norse Raðulfr (rað "counsel" + ulfr "wolf") through Old English Rædwulf and the longer form Radulf.

The raven is sometimes called 'wolf bird', the relationship between ravens and wolves being well known.

The Phelips who built the house had a standard coat of arms but the Craford (Crawford?) family into which they married had three white birds on theirs. The notice beside it said they should be black because the birds are ravens. Having white instead of black ravens on your family arms is not something done by mistake so I'm parking it here as a reminder.

Montacute is next to a cone-shaped hill called St Michael's Hill/ Montacute Hill, Mons Acute. A print in Collinson's History of Somerset (1784) shows how the hill looked, or perhaps an idealised view.




There may have been a menhir on Montacute Hill which was the site of a motte-and-bailey castle and a carved crucifix was allegedly discovered there. Be that as it may, the A303, labelled 'Fosse Way' here, passes close to the hill; not all the Fosse Way can be identified but the mapmakers seem quite confident about this stretch.