Night raven

For the Marvel Comics character, see Night Raven.

Art of ominous tattered ravens

Night ravens, also nightravens (compare Danish and Norwegian: nattravn; Swedish: nattramn, nattkorp; German: Nachtkrapp, Nachtrabe), are creatures of European folklore, predominantly desribed as raven like creatures appearing in the night. The folklore differs regionally, and night ravens may be other beings, such as undead, shapeshifted into ravens. They are sometimes used as a bugbear creature of cautionary tales, used to scare children into going to bed.

Legends of night ravens variously exist in Germany, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Hungary, Poland, and Russia, among more. Ravens, overall, has a mythological reputation for being an ominous bird that is often associated with evil, sudden death, further, a Messenger of Darkness.

Description

Various versions of the night raven myth exist. In some legends, the night raven is described as a giant, nocturnal raven-like bird, while others leave out any specific size.

German folklore

In German folklore (German: Nachtkrapp, Nachtrabe), mainly of Southern Germany and Austria, the most common legends claim that the night raven leaves its hiding place at night to hunt. If it is seen by little children, it will abduct them into its nest and messily devour them, first ripping off their limbs and then picking out their heart. According to other legends, the night raven will merely put children in his bag and take them away.

Tales about the Wütender Nachtkrapp (German, lit. 'angry night raven') are less common. Instead of abducting children, it simply crows loudly and flutters its wings, until the children have been terrorized into silence.

The Guter Nachtkrapp (German, lit. 'good night raven') is a rare benevolent version of the night raven tale. In Burgenland myths, this bird enters the children's room and gently sings them to sleep.

Nordic folklore

In Nordic folklore, night ravens (Danish: nattravn, Norwegian: nattravn, Swedish: nattramn), are mostly known from the southern regions of Sweden and Norway, as well as Denmark. Some legends depict them with no eyes, which, if looked into, cause death. Such are also depicted with holes in their wings, which cause illness and disease if looked at.

In Swedish folklore (nattramn, nattkorp), especially of southern Sweden, night ravens are said to be the ghosts of suiciders or pediciders, dead unbaptized children, or those burried in unholy earth, believed to appear at night in feathered hamr (bird form), and then primarily as ravens, instilling fear around it. They make a creaking sound, like the squeak of old wagon wheels, and never fly closer to the ground than the yoke of oxen.

Period depiction (Stora Hammars stones) of a probable Valkyrie in raven-disguise (note the dress), overseeing some sort of sacrifice

Even in Old Norse mythology, ravens played a part in death. Valkyries, the psychopomps of Odin, when on the look for warriors to bring to Valhalla (the hall of slain warriors), scouted battlefields disguised as ravens (see Hamr (folklore)).

Other Swedish records, describe night ravens as other forms of undead, with the SAOB:s entry for the variant nattkorp (Swedish: korp also meaning "raven"), describing it as a common undead (see Gengångare). An 18th century German-Swedish dictionary, translated German Poldergeist (poltergeist), as tomt-gubbe, ghost, and night raven, and an 19th century quote, from the Swedish region of Halland, says the following:

The .. expelled dead, then fly around during the night as "night ravens", in the shape of skeletons, with a creaking, squeaking sound.

Background

The origins of the night raven legends are still unknown, but a connection possibly exists to rook infestations in Central Europe. Already feared due to their black feathers and scavenging diet, the mass gatherings quickly became an existential threat to farmers and gave rooks and crows their place in folklore as all-devouring monsters.

Alternative senses

Wether related to the myth or not, the name night raven has, at least historically, not soly been used in the sense of the monster. According to the German dictionary, Deutsches Wörterbuch, and the Swedish Academy's dictionary, SAOB, the term night raven is also an older Germanic name for nocturnal birds, especially nightjars and owls; still being the Danish (natravn), Norwegian (nattravn) and Icelandic (nátthrafn) term for nightjars. Nightjars are also called night ravens in Latin (nycticorax), which appears related to the Germanic usage.

The word nightraven (also nightcrow) was also used in English before modern times, among others, used by writers such as William Shakespeare, meaning "nocturnal bird", variously identified as "night-owl", "night-heron" and "nightjar".

Another sense is as a synonym for night owl, ie, a nocturnal person; in Danish and Norwegian, the form natteravn, specifically refers to a vnight wanderer, a person wandering during the night to keep the neighbourhood safe (see Natteravnene). In Swedish, night raven has also been used to describe brigands.

In popular culture

Johann August Apel's short story "Der Freischütz", from Gespensterbuch volume 1 (1810) has night-ravens flying around a magic circle of skulls and bones, while the protagonist begins to cast magic bullets.

In the mobile game Year Walk (2013), one of the Watchers is a Night Raven that steals a key. In the subsequent e-picturebook Year Walk: Bedtime Stories for Awful Children (2015), the fourth chapter is devoted to the Night Raven.