Flight

The Nachtkrapp is a boogeyman figure From the folklore of Germany and Austria. It is most often described as a huge raven with empty eye sockets and holes in its wings. Looking into the Nachtkrapp’s empty eyes will cause immediate death, while looking at the holes in its wings can cause illness and disease.

The Nachtkrapp is most often said to snatch up wayward children, taking them back to its nest where it will tear off their limbs, rip out their heart and eat them. Other versions of the story exist in places like Hungary, Poland and Russia, where the Nachtkrapp is described as more closely resembling an owl or heron.

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Valravn (Nintendo Switch)

Hooooowww did people 1) hear the folksong Valravnen about a knight who's been transformed into a bird (likely an eagle, not a raven) and can only break the curse by killing a baby, 2) see that one (1) now-extinct noble family referred to their heraldic beast, a wolf/bird, as a 'valravn', and 3) read one single 1800s countryboy's explanation that valravnen is like an evil valkyrie, and SOMEHOW extrapolate from those three wildly unrelated sources that "The Valravn" (because it's never a folkloric concept with different interpretations, it's always a single specific creature) is a were-wolf/raven who haunts battlefields to drink the blood of slain warriors????

Please stop depicting 'the' valravn when you don't even know what it is, I'm begging on my fucking knees, I hate the way recent Danish folklore-inspired popculture has latched onto this figure and keeps depicting it in wilder and wilder ways😭😭

If you want a folkloric evil bird creature in your story please just use a fucking dragon or gammen. Use a damn cockatrice or vættehane, idgaf. Please just stop muddying the already-confusing lore of valravnen. The figure has been abused enough already and you are making my hobby as a folklorist very difficult😥

I thought I had a pretty good grasp on what the mythical creature valravn from Danish folklore is but after diving deeper it’s more versatile than expected.

The version I was originally told is that a valravn (means “war raven” or more precisely “raven of the fallen” as in fallen people on the battlefield) is a normal raven that gained human intelligence by eating the flesh or brain of dead people after a battle. With the gift of intelligence also came the curse of only being able to fly at night. The only way to gain the ability to move around in daylight was to eat the heart of a young boy. Then the valravn would be able to turn into either a human or a raven/wolf beast and go wherever it wanted whenever it pleased.

But in the most well known song about valravens they’re all human men who were turned into ravens by either a witch or a female troll. A women was told her husband could only turn back if he drank her blood so she asks another valravn for help. It agrees in exchange for the life of her first son as soon as he has spoken his first three words, suggesting an infant would be too young.

In yet another version the valravn is a human who cannibalised dead people on the battlefield and turned into a raven or a human/raven/wolf monster that could only travel at night but would continue the cannibalism until it ate a young boy at which point it would be able to turn back to a human form.

So take your pick. You want a weird creepy raven that has decided it wants to be a human? Or a tragic story of someone who can only turn back by hurting their beloved? Or perhaps a wendigo style creature who became a monster after committing the taboo of cannibalism? Or maybe a mix? Because clearly Danish people in the past weren’t too worried about the valravn canon. The only generally agreed on lore is that they’re always male, can only travel at night and they eat humans or drink human blood to reach their final form or be cured.

by artist Maggie Vandewalle

There. He . IS

X

When you hear the Old Church bell toll and a sad wail echo through the forest, do not approach. For the Weeping Raven is there, grieving for all she lost.

It is best not to disturb her, lest you want to join her in sorrow.

In Danish folklore, the valravn is a supernatural bird that can take on the form of a knight or a wolf. They were first mentioned in the 1800s, when it was said that ravens who feasted on the bodies of dead kings or chieftains would become valravne.

Valravne are often described as malevolent creatures, leading people astray and causing harm or even death. Some say they are restless souls who can only free themselves from their animal forms by consuming the blood of a child.

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Crows! ( ╹▽╹ ) drawn December 2021

Valravn