The Folklore of Birds

Collins New Naturalist #39

by Edward Allworthy Armstrong

Edward A Armstrong is already known to readers of the New Naturalist as the author of the remarkable study on the wren. His wide scholarship and talents have fitted him outstandingly for this book, which could only have been written by a man with his deep understanding, not only of ornithology, but of social anthropology, psychology and comparative religion.

Mr Amstrong has selected a number of familiar birds - such as the swan, the raven, the owl, the robin and the wren - and has traced magico-religious beliefs concerning them as far back as possible to the cultures in which these beliefs arose. With the scientist’s eye and methods of analysis he has examined the development of myth and ritual with originality and ingenuity.

Many odd and interesting facts are cited, and explanations are given, for example of the customs of breaking the wish-bone, and of fables concerning weather-prophet birds and the generation of the Barnacle Goose from shell-fish.

This book is the first treatment of a group of folklore beliefs as a series of artefacts are treated by an archaeologist, classifying them in order according to epochs. Archaeological data, as well as oral and literary traditions, have been used to illustrate the origins and significance of the current folklore.

The illustrations are of exceptional quality and consist of over 140 carefully chosen photographs and line drawings from worldwide sources.

Genres: Birds, Folklore, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

Edward Allworthy Armstrong (1900–1978) was a British ornithologist and Church of England clergyman.

Armstrong was the author of a number of ornithological books, including Bird display: an introduction to the study of bird psychology (1942), The Wren (New Naturalist Monograph no.3) (1955) and The study of bird song (1963). He was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for his book Birds of the Grey Wind.

Reviews

[ALX · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up as a counterpoint to a book about the symbolism of birds to Medieval Christians. The Folklore of Birds doesn't contain many religious references so I got what I wanted there. But this book was published in 1958 and focuses almost exclusively on British folklore, so much of the time I felt I was missing a lot of the background that would be obvious to an English person who grew up around the 1950s. Still, there's a ton of very interesting and strange descriptions of beliefs, rituals and stories about a variety of birds. I also loved all the pictures and drawings of rock engravings, ritual objects, cave paintings, reliefs and burial objects from prehistory to more recent times which gave a lot of context and enjoyment to the folklore. One complaint is that I wish the author had given the Latin names for the birds mentioned, only the common names are given so it's harder to do further research.