Magical creatures
AN APPRECIATION OF THE OWL
There is so much beauty, wonder and awe in the bird world but is there a bird so enchanting as the owl? Nothing comes close. A crow? Too witchy. A peacock? Fascinating but vain. Bird of Paradise? Too exotic.
Owls are mysterious, spooky, austere, wise, totemic and, above all, magical. But why? They’re no smarter than any other hawk, and parrots and crows are practically geniuses compared to the wise old owl. It’s this night bird’s attributes and special weapons that give it mystery; a flat, almost human face that stares out with piercing dark eyes upon a strange bobbing head that can nearly rotate a full circle. A call that can chill your bones like a poltergeist’s nip or a shriek that can strip your finger nails. A bewitchingly camouflaged silent killer, they fly in deathly silence, sucking sound from the air, disguised as the forest or a phantasm, before dropping on their prey with dagger-like talons. Fiercely protective and brave, ’tis very wise never to tread near a nesting owl.
We’ve been spellbound by owls since long before the first Harry Potter books in the 1990s, further back than pagan times and the suspicion-ravaged Middle Ages. Traces of mythical symbolism featuring owls are found in ancient civilisations. A terracotta relief from Babylonia, thought to be from 1750 BCE, depicts a winged, unknown goddess standing upon two lions and flanked by two owls that stare out menacingly. It’s believed the owls’ hunting prowess and haunting nature were chosen to illustrate the same qualities in the ‘Queen of the Night’ they guard.
Comparatively much more recently, in ancient Greek culture, the little owl was held in high esteem. A companion of the goddess Athene, herself a symbol of wisdom and reason, the owl was emblazoned across ceramics, and minted upon coins. (Even to this day the little owl is featured on Greek Euros.) In Athenian times, the city’s Acropolis was full of little owls, kept as living protective charms guarding the denizens of Greece.
Back in spooky old Britain with our weird and wonderful olde ways, our island is soaked in ancient forms of magic and rites that have long since found their way into popular belief and custom.
Tawny and barn owls were often seen as birds of incredible ill omen. A single hoot was said to mean the death of anyone in earshot, while seeing an owl in the daytime would totally spoil your day as it surely meant you would be the receiver of terribly bad luck at some point. Even one just sitting on your roof could mean an unfortunate life for any child born there.
The barn owl was a particularly bad egg. Known as the ‘Bird of Doom’, they were nailed to buildings and barn doors to ward away evil spirits, such was their potency. It’s thought that this macabre custom, still prevalent in the 19th century, was where the bird found its name, not from the fact that they shelter and nest in old farm buildings.
As times and culture changed, these practices and speculations have died out (for most of us these days just seeing an owl in the wild is tremendously good luck).* However, our obsession with the charismatic owl is deeply entwined in our collective conscious. Artist and ornithologist Matt Sewell is author of Owls: Our Most Enchanting Bird (Ebury Press).