One for Sorrow, Two for Joy...

From the sea have I come

and to the sea my way I wend.

I shall meet my one true love

and be parted from my friend.

~from The Crow-Girl by Bodil Bredsdorff

I have a new favorite book. The Crow-Girl is a charming story that looks as unflinchingly at death as it does at life. (I am hereafter terrified of bogs--once a bog takes hold of you, it doesn't let go, like quicksand, only slower...) It is a quiet tale: there are no wars or evil henchman to vanquish. Instead, people are revealed in their kindness and cruelty and sorrow by the way they treat each other, how some are willing to share their last meal, while others are capable of much mischief in small, mean ways disguising it as kindness. Crow-Girl is intelligent and capable and her there-and-back-again journey is worthy of any adventurous hobbit's.

The story got me thinking of crow and raven references in music and literature. "The Raven" by Edgar Alan Poe is the most obvious. There is also "The Twa Corbies," an old English poem about a murder witnessed only by the crows. There is also the song "A Murder of One" by the Counting Crows. The lyrics have such a haunting quality to them that I wonder if Adam Duritz did not borrow from something far older. If he did not consciously, then certainly he tapped into something deeper.

I dreamt I saw you walking up a hillside in the snow
Casting shadows on the winter sky as you stood there
Counting crows
One for sorrow
Two for joy
Three for girls and four for boys
Five for silver
Six for gold and
Seven for the secret never to be told...

And finally, a little known legend I came across while researching a term paper one semester: The Welsh have a superstition that it is bad luck to shoot a crow. For it is said that when nearing his death, King Arthur was transformed into a crow and has since wandered the world in that form until the time is right for his return. Therefore, one who shoots a crow may inadvertently prevent the return of the King.



14 Days til Lift-Off