Odin's Birds - Reflections on Thought and Memory

Raven flying in front of a cliff in the Dolores River Canyon. This is one of my favorite raven pictures. I like the way the light shines through his feathers.

I don’t think you can spend much time in the Four Corners area without noticing the ravens. There always seems to be at least one raven around.

The raven may be in a tree, looking down at you. Or flying by with one of his rowdy friends, making strange, guttural “glorking” sounds, punctuated by the sound of wingflaps.

I can hear some outside the window as I write this sentence. It’s part of their morning sun-worship. They perch, facing into the rising sun, and call.

Raven skimming the ground in Monument Valley

There is an obvious intelligence about ravens, a mischievousness, a sense of fun. They watch, they see. And they laugh and joke, raucously commenting on everything.

The thing about ravens is that it’s hard for me to think of them as just being ravens. Seems like I’m always imagining them to be something else, burdening them with my ideas of what they may be.

Raven in a Cottonwood tree, looking shaggy and making glorking noises

For example, last winter I was watching a video series from The Great Courses. It was called The Vikings, and was taught by Professor Kenneth Harl.  It was extremely interesting, and started me reading more about Norse mythology.

And what do you suppose I found, in that reading?

Why, ravens, of course.

Fledgling Ravens looking wise

Like I said, they are always around. Watching and cawing and croaking out low comments and coarse laughs.

In Norse mythology, Odin had two ravens - Huginn (“Thought”) and Muninn (“Mind”, “Memory”, depending on the translation). Odin would send his ravens out in the world:

Two ravens sit on his (Odin’s) shoulders and whisper all the news which they see and hear into his ear; they are called Huginn and Muninn. He sends them out in the morning to fly around the whole world, and by breakfast they are back again. Thus, he finds out many new things and this is why he is called ‘raven-god’.

I love that idea.

Huginn and Muninn raiding the Mesa Verde Snackbar while Odin is home worrying

What I find to be most interesting, though, is this quotation from Odin:

Hugin and Munin Fly every day Over all the world; I worry for Hugin That he might not return, But I worry more for Munin.

There are various explanations for this quotation on the web. Some claim that the passage reflects Odin’s worry about his loss of “shamanic powers”, or similar explanations.

I have trouble with these explanations. They seem out of character.

As if Odin - Grimnir Glad-of-War, Lord of the Hanged Men, the Stormbringer - were lying on his analyst’s couch, looking at the ceiling and muttering “You know what really worries me, Doc? Losing my Shamanic Powers, that’s what. Tell you, I’m losing sleep over it.”

I don’t know, but to me it sounds like Odin’s concern is about dementia. For a god that chose to trade one of his eyes for wisdom, losing his mind would be a horrifying thought.

I picture Odin slumping in his chair before breakfast, slack-jawed, staring blankly with his one good eye, as his Thought and Mind wing their way through the world.

Perhaps they’ll return. Or, perhaps, this time, they won’t.

I wonder if he takes the risk every morning because he thinks the knowledge is worth the risk.

Raven in a Juniper Tree

Or, maybe, he doesn’t have a choice, and his ravens have to go out every morning and fly. They come and go as they please, and he just hopes that they come back.

Is this how the Danes saw dementia? One’s thoughts and consciousness cut loose, to roam the world?

I don’t know.

But I know that I find it to be one of the more comforting ways to think about the disease.

I don’t really believe the Huginn/Muninn story, but I like to think of it. If that makes any sense.

Raven calling. Out on the edge of some canyon, where I just forget and you can’t recall.

See what I mean, about my problem with letting ravens just be ravens?

Sources and consciously stolen words:

• Quotations and translations are taken from the websites:

  •   Norse Mythology for Smart People 

  • Wikipedia entry for Huginn and Muninn

• As well as Neil Gaiman’s wonderful book, Norse Mythology

• The Great Courses’ The Vikings series

• Apologies to Chris Whitley for misappropriating his lyric in the caption of the last photo.