by Cassandra Samuels
Using myths and legend in storytelling
In
my book A Scandalous Wager my heroine, Lisbeth Carslake, Countess of Blackhurst,
is accused of killing her husband. Although she is acquitted in a court of law,
the high society of London (the ton) start calling her The Black Raven –
bringer of bad luck and death. They cross themselves as they cross the street
to avoid her and generally give her such a hard time she becomes a social pariah who seldom
leaves her house. Thus this was the precedence for the wager which the hero,
Oliver Whitely, Earl of Bellamy, takes on at the beginning of the story.
Before
writing this story I had come across an article regarding folklore, myths and legends
and was especially drawn to those of the raven. Firstly, there is a common
misunderstanding that crows and ravens are the same. They do come from the same
family of bird but are not the same. The raven is larger, shaggier and has a
deeper, croaky call than that of its crow cousin. However, both feature heavily
in mythology.
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| Raven at the Tower of London taken on my visit there. |
In
Welsh myths the raven (Mabinogion) is the harbinger of death. The often bleak
reputation surrounding this magnificent black bird is likely to be because it
is a scavenger and often found picking the flesh of dead things.
Odin
in Norse mythology had two ravens. One called Thought and the other Memory which
he sent out daily to spy and report on the goings on in Midgard (Earth).
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| Odin with his Ravens - Thought and Memory |
Some
tribes in North America knew the raven as a stealer of souls, while others saw
it as a symbol of transformation.
Anyone
who has gone to the Tower of London will be familiar with the legend
surrounding the ravens there. It is said that if ever the ravens left the tower
the kingdom of England would fall. Charles II even went so far as to move his
royal astrologer and his whole observatory from the tower rather than relocate the ravens. Even now they always keep a breeding pair of ravens at the Tower of
London.
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| Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license |
Even
in more modern literature the raven is a popular character.
- Shakespeare mentions the raven in both Macbeth and Othello.
- Charles Dickens’ Barnaby Rudge features “Grip” the raven.
- In Edgar Allan Poe’s poem The Raven, the bird is a supernatural messenger.
- In Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings Roac son of Crac is the leader of the ravens of the lonely mountain.
- And in Game of Thrones ravens are used as messengers as well as prophets (three eyed raven) and the character Bran is Gaelic for raven.
All
this distrust and superstition surrounding the raven made it perfect as a
moniker for my heroine. After all, who would trust a raven?
Do
you like stories where myths and legends are used as part of the premise?
Have
you read another story or film I haven’t mentioned that features a raven?
Love to love the three men guarding my desk
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| Tyrion, Job Snow & Rob Stark from Game of Thrones |
Love
to laugh at sayings on mugs.
Love
to learn and research new things that can enhance my future stories.
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| My visit to Corfe Castle in England. |
