Ravens in Mythology

In response to last week's post on Edgar Allan Poe and his famous Raven, Dezzy of Hollywood Spy sent a link to this funny meme as another contribution to the post.

I love the long-suffering look of annoyance on that cat's face, LOL!

Anyway, this meme reminded me of two wonderful myths where ravens play important roles of spiritual significance:

First, the story of Raven the Lightbringer, which is an ancient myth of the Haida First Nation on Canada's west coast --

["Raven bringing light to the world"

by Robert Davidson,

found here]

When the world was new, humans and all other creatures lived in utter darkness. Then one day Raven discovered that a selfish old man was keeping all the light in the universe hidden away in his house. The man had boxed up the sun so only he and his own family could benefit from it.

Through a series of clever shapeshifting manoeuvres, Raven took human form as the man's grandson. The boy, of course, wanted to play with the beautiful ball of light. Like any indulgent grandparent would do, the old man took the sun out of its box and tossed it to the child.

Immediately the boy shapeshifted back to Raven form, caught the sun in its beak and flew up, up and away through the dwelling's smoke hole. Raven placed the sun in the sky so that all peoples and creatures of the earth would benefit from its life-giving light and heat.

Thanks, Ron Burgundy, for bringing us to the second myth:

In Norse mythology, Odin the Allfather actually had two ravens who served him -- Hugin ("Thought") and Munin ("Memory").

[by kojotei]

Hugin and Munin were Odin's messengers and information gatherers. As suggested by the marvelous artwork above, they acted as Odin's eyes and ears throughout the Nine Realms. Scholars interpret these ravens as spiritual symbols of Odin's shapeshifting powers and his essentially shamanic nature.

[created by Jivotica,

found here]

Do you know of any other myths about ravens and their spiritual significance?