Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/01/15/fulfilling-an-ancient-prophecy-a-raven-has-left-the-tower-of-london.html
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It’s nothing to crow about.
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They keep a corvum on hand to deal with this issue.
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Do they suspect murder? Surely it is an unkindness to suspect a conspiracy or treachery on the wing?
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Fun fact: the head of the Welsh hero Bendigeidfran, commonly rendered in English as “Bran the Blessed”, is supposedly buried under the Tower of London (or was until Arthur dug it up), and bran is Welsh for “crow” or “raven”. Bran’s head was similarly a totem of protection for Britain, and Arthur’s disinterment of it was blamed for the fall of the Isle of the Mighty to the English invaders.
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Inspired by a raven:
Once upon a morning dreary, while I pondered hungover, teary
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten posts–
While I typed, strength sapping, suddenly there came a tapping
As of someone brusquely rapping, nay, clapping at my office door.
“Tis the boss,” I muttered, “shattering my office door–”
She hates BoingBoing, evermore."
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak new year;
And each separate rousing fear wrought its ghost upon my screen.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;–vainly I had sought to borrow
From my laptop surcease of sorrow–sorrow for the lost discourse–
For the rare and radiant rhetoric whom the ancients name discourse–
Famous here for evermore.
And the silken, sad, uncertain blinking of each red-heart alert
Thrilled me–filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to the still beating of my heart, I stood repeating
“Tis my boss entreating entrance at my chamber door–
some gormless chief entreating entrance at my office door;–
This is it I’m gone for sure.”
Quoth @thomdunn “Nevermore”
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“Raven vs crow” debate in 3… 2…
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Well, look at all of the news surrounding the Windsors this past year and a half and the UK public’s general indifference towards the monarchy the years following Diana’s passing.
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The Tower of London are very picky about their corvids.
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I had raisin bran for breakfast today, but that’s probably not the same thing …
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Really enjoying the comments on this. This is very telling about this particular raven: she’s the oldest one and as of the Ravenmaster’s most recent update listing them by date of birth (emphasis added):
Details of the ravens, their place of birth and year of birth below:
Erin (female, Somerset, 2006)
Merlina (female, South Wales, 2005)
Rocky (male, Somerset, 2008)
Jubilee (male, Somerset, 2013)
Gripp (male, Somerset, 2013)
Harris (male, Somerset, 2016)
Poppy (female, Sussex, 2018)
George (female, Tower of London, 2019)Merlina is the friendliest raven who has a special connection with me, but is still not tame.
He makes it clear that taming them is not his goal and actually kind of counter to it. They do not want the ravens interacting closely with tourists (or vice versa). There are many recorded instances of tourists messing with the guards, which is already terrible.
There has been the occasional raven escape. Munin escaped for seven days until caught by a vigilant member of the public in Greenwich Park. She was returned to the Tower and is still with us at the ripe old age of 22!
Grog was last seen outside an East End pub called the Rose and Punchbowl in 1981.
A raven escape is luckily very rare and we always keep at least one raven spare – just in case!
He lives at the tower with his wife and daughter. I wonder if they had a choice (as I did at the Mermaid Inn in Rye) of “regular or haunted.”
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Leaving this one to me I guess.
“Nevermore…”
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Grog was found in a pub…
Well I never
Or well I nevermore (fromnabulax)
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I’ve told these posh nobs: When I get the Crown and Sceptre handed over, they can have their stupid bird back. Until then, we’re quite happy in our basement, aren’t we, Merlina. No, that’s not a puddy-tat.
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The categories were made for corvids, not corvids for the categories.
[ETA: thanks to @the_borderer for pointing out the sheer awful transphobia of many of the comments in the Slate Star Codex article. I’ve updated the URL to be the You Are Now Less Wrong version of the article, which still has awful transphobic comments, but far fewer of them. CW: awful, transphobic comments (including mentions of sexual violence). The article itself is (to my cishet reading) trans-allied.]
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But is the Strength and Patience of the Hill still spinning in the basemen?
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