Creature Of The Night: 

Confliction 

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The Valravn breaks out

Animation Practice! I have not done real animation until the beginning of this year and it’s only been a few logo animations before my shoulder gave out. Now I’m more or less back and had this wild need to try and draw part of Zephyr’s transformation.

And guys.. I had FUN! oh my god this was a ton of fun! Kinda just did it all by gut feeling but I’m really proud of the outcome!

I finally finished this massive beast of animation. 

This one on its own have been just The Project to practice and learn how to animate. And honestly. For someone who animated for the first time in february this year - I am pretty hecking proud of myself.

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’m finally reaching the final stage of this illustration, after almost 4 years working on and off on it! 💪

Some details of “Valravn”

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強欲のヤタ

Blessing of the Raven

Raven, carry my woes, my sorrows, black bird. The raven was primarily seen as an ill omen, a messenger of death and grief. It was strongly associated with witchcraft and shape shifting and was often called "the witch bird".

However, in one of the songs of the ancient Finns the raven was also an empathetic helper; a bird you could trust your sorrows with and it would ease your pain by carrying the woes beyond dark waters so that they would no longer bother anyone.

Find me and my art elsewhere!      

OLD GODS - Artworks inspired by Finnish mythology and Folklore

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