Section VII.—The Raven.
Ferocious and predatory nations love and admire even the raven that scents slaughter from afar, and is the comrade and emblem of the battle-field. So as Oreb and Zeeb were among the Bedouin desolators of Israel, Hraben and Ulf were among the wasters of Christendom.
Two ravens, Mind and Memory, go forth throughout the world, then returning and perching on Odin’s shoulders, reveal to him all that passes on the earth.
The raven seems to have been the special mark of Odin, and sometimes used for Thor; for amulets have been found in Sweden and Denmark, where a raven flies before the mounted figure of Odin, and again is seen in company with the hammer of Thor. And who does not know the raven banner of the sons of Ragnar, denoting probably their family dis, which flapped its wings before victory and drooped them before defeat?
No wonder, then, that the raven has left traces in the nomenclature of Teutonic Europe, though it is not always easy to distinguish its progeny from those of ragn, judgment, and rand, a house.
The raven, in his harshest croak, entitled the Frank sovereign Chramne, who is hard to recognize as the near kinsman of the sixteen Rafns of the Landnama-bok, and Rabanus Maurus, the Latinism of the learned archbishop of Mainz of the ninth century.
Hrafenhilldur, a suitable title for a Valkyr, and Hrafenkell also figure in the Landnama-bok, and in Domesday stand Ravengar and Ravenswar, showing the transition from the gjer, or spear, down to our word war.
Rafnulf is northern, but has been mixed up with the derivatives of Randolf. Rambert, successor of St. Ansgar, in Holstein, was a bright raven, Rampold a raven prince, and the Italian form Ramusio may be another variety; but in general the raven comes at the end of words as in Wolfram, Valdraban, Bertram, &c.
Section VIII.—The Swan.
The swan might well figure prominently in the northern mythology, familiar as she was, as the fair creature of the autumn, when huge squadrons of the whistling swan fly southwards, athwart the darkened heavens and pine forests, making the air resound with the solemn beat of their heavy wings, and their deep peculiar cry.