When I wasn’t looking for birds in the wild on our UK trip this spring, I was looking for them in the art we saw in the galleries, cathedrals and castles we wandered through.
It’s surprising how often you find them, in windows, mosaics and carvings, some contemporary and others centuries old.
Contemporary sculpture by UK artist, Paul Smith — located outside a gallery near York Minster in York.But perhaps the most interesting piece of bird, specifically, corvid art I saw was in a window of Newcastle Cathedral. Amazingly, I hadn’t seen it before as I grew up on the Newcastle Quayside, just steps from the Cathedral and used to play in the alleyways in that area in the 1950s and 60s. Back then the church was known as St. Nicholas’ Cathedral.
When I was running wild in the cathedral grounds, the window in question would have been relatively new having been created in 1935 by glass artist Archibald Keightley Nicholson in memory of Edward, Viscount Grey of Fallodon.
The overall window portrays St. Oswald and St. Cuthbert — both venerable Northumbrian Saints. At my elementary school, we were divided, Hogwarts-like, into “houses” all named after the local saints — Aidan, Cuthbert, Hilda and Bede. St. Oswald didn’t make the final cut at St. Andrews School otherwise I might have been familiar with the raven connection.
The window, located in a side chapel of Newcastle Cathedral, portrays the two saints surrounded by and holding a wide array of birds — possibly because Viscount Grey was a co-founder of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds*. If you look closely you can find ducks, a black-headed gull, what looks like a kittiwake, doves, an eagle, a robin (the UK type) and even a puffin in the Farne Islands section at bottom left. Several squirrels and an otter round out the wildlife theme.
But what really leapt out at me was, naturally, the raven casually perched on St. Oswald’s hand!
So what is St. Oswald doing with a raven? I had to know, so I went down a research rabbit hole. Here’s what I emerged with …
First of all, who was Oswald?
He was a Northumbrian king who converted to Christianity and was killed in a battle with the King of Mercia in 642.
Why is Oswald associated with ravens?
One possible connection between Oswald and ravens is simply in his name and its connection to the Norse god, Odin. Oswald’s parents were not Christian and gave their children names that began with the prefix Os. This was linked to the Norse god, Odin, who was well known for his two raven advisors —Thought and Memory.
Oswald, Odin and ravens are also connected by legends involving elements of sacred trees and wells.
Odin hung from the world tree Yggdrasil, an ash tree, for 9 days pierced by his own spear in a quest to drink wisdom from a sacred well at the tree’s base. Myself, I’d have gone for a Continuing Education course — but then I’m not a Viking god.
The Oswald-raven link to this story occurred after Oswald’s death at the battle of Oswestry. The Mercian king ordered the head and arms of his slain enemy to be removed and hung on a stake. A great bird, presumably a raven, flew off with one arm and dropped it on an ancient ash tree. The arm (miraculously intact a year after Oswald’s death) brought the tree back to youthful vigour and caused a spring to appear from the earth. Even after Oswald’s brother retrieved the arm as a relic, the tree and spring retained miraculous healing properties.
These are the English connections between Oswald and ravens.
But the raven in the stained glass has a ring in his or her beak, so what’s all that about?
Well, hundreds of years after his death, a sort of cult of St Oswald grew in 12th and 13th century Germany, spawning a new Oswald and the raven story, this time with comic overtones.
In short, the story went that Oswald, for divine reasons, needed to persuade a princess to marry him. He sent his talking raven as an ambassador/marriage broker. The raven, a bird of quirky and outspoken personality, had many adventures and eventually helped secure the betrothal.
I found seemingly endless material about St. Oswald and his raven. If you’d like to hear more details, here’s a great video by German Medieval Studies researcher,
A few more birds I spotted lurking in stained glass windows in York and Newcastle.
*Thanks to Maggie who pointed out that, while Viscount Grey was not the sole founder of the RSPB . The bird protection movement was initiated by a group of women in the late 19th century. Emily Williamson, Etta Lemon and Eliza Phillips led the way with their campaign against the rampant use of feathers in fashion — a fad that was leading the the extinction of certain species. Read more about their work here > __________________________________________________________________________________________
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