Unkindness-of-valravns - The Unkindness Of Valravns

Dan Panosian

It's high time I posted this one!

I love Hellblade so much, this i sone of the most emotionally accurate and symbolic games ever in my opinion.

No Context Crow #78: Swamp Crow

If this image is yours and you would like it credited or removed, let me know!

Three Crows - now with voice over (thanks to Iggydkidd on twitter!).

The Nachtkrapp is a raven-like creature found in Germany. The Nachtkrapp is described as an eagle-sized raven, with either no eyes or holes where the eyes should be that if looked at will cause death and holes in its wings that if seen will cause illness. The Nachtkrapp is said to hunt for children at night and rip their limbs off and pluck out their hearts with its sharp beak. Nachtkrapp means “Night Raven” in German and there is even a kind version of this creature called the Guter Nachtkrapp or “Good Night Raven” that will sing children to sleep.

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😥

Quick thingie to illustrate one of the novel published in the furry fanzine I’ve been organizing with friends. I’ll probably share infos about it later ! Stay tuned ;D

*SKÁLD plays in the distance*

Zephyr’s bad day.

A small taste of the 8 page pitch for my new series i’m planning.