Tales tell of how Charles II, fearful of ancient legends that "Britain will fall" if the ravens at the Tower of London ever leave their abode, ordered that the wings of the six ravens be clipped.But the truth is that the ravens only arrived at the Tower in 1883, when they were brought in as props in tales of Gothic horror that were told to tourists. The legend itself originated from the summer of 1944, when ravens in London were used as unofficial spotters for enemy bombs and planes.

Medieval authors placed fantastic creatures in the borders of manuscripts, since they mark the boundaries of our understanding. Tales throughout the world generally place fabulous beasts in marginal locations. According to apocalyptic visions of the Bible, they will also proliferate as we approach the end of time. Because they challenge our conceptual powers, fantastic creatures also seem to exist at the limits of language. Legends tell us that imaginary animals belong to a primordial time, before we had encompassed the world in names, categories and elaborate conceptual frameworks. This richly illustrated book shows how, despite their liminal role, dog-men, mermaids, and many other imaginary creatures are socially constructed through the same complex play of sensuality and imagination as "real" ones. It traces the history of imaginary animals from Palaeolithic art to the Harry Potter stories. These figures help us psychologically by giving form to our amorphous fears as "monsters", as well as embodying our hopes as "wonders." Yet their greatest service may be to continually challenge our imaginations, directing us beyond the limitations of our conventional beliefs and expectations--From book jacket

In this illuminating discussion of the role of animals in Western thought, the author shows, through his analysis of folklore, popular ideas, and natural history, that man's traditional fascination with animals is more than it appears. Professor Sax asserts that "animals put us in touch with modes of perception that are prior to culture. Encounters with animals compel us to question what it means to be human." After summarizing recent research on the bonds between animals and people, the author discusses the two major traditions of animal tales in Western culture, fables and fairy tales. Also discussed is what role specific animals, such as the beaver, stag, and elephant, have played in Western thought.

Though people generally do not think of them in such terms, crows are remarkably graceful: from the tip of a crow's beak to the end of its tail is a single curve, which changes rhythmically as the crow turns its head or bends toward the ground. Foraging on their long, powerful legs, crows appear to glide over the earth; they take flight almost without effort, flapping their wings easily, ascending into the air like spirits. Nevertheless, the whiskers around their beaks and an apparent smile make crows, in a scruffy sort of way, endearingly 'human'. In a vast range of cultures from the Chinese to the Hopi Indians, crows are bearers of prophecy. Because of their courtship dances and monogamous unions, the Greeks invoked crows at weddings as symbols of conjugal love. Crows are among the most ubiquitous of birds, yet, without being in the least exotic, they remain mysterious. This book is a survey of crows, ravens, magpies and their relatives in myth, literature and life. It ranges from the raven sent out by Noah to the corvid deities of the Eskimo, to Taoist legends, Victorian novels and contemporary films. It will be of interest to all people who have ever been intrigued, puzzled, annoyed or charmed by these wonderfully intelligent birds.

"The Parliament of Animals represents a scholarly treatise on folkloric and literary narratives of animals. Each chapter on such creatures as elephants, monkeys, rats, snakes, dogs, wolves, cats, and birds includes informative introductions concerning the behavior and psychology of these animals and their relationship to their human counterparts. Useful select bibliographies on zoology, literature, folklore and language conclude these introductory comments which are followed by intriguing fables, legends, anecdotes and literary works concerning the animals under discussion. This book is thus a novel approach to the fascinating subject of the depiction of animals in prose writings over many centuries, giving scholarly information while at the same time providing a splendid collection of readable and enjoyable narratives from anonymous or known authors. The reader is easily engaged by this anthologized treatise on animal behavior, intelligence and psychology, and the obvious result is a better understanding and appreciation of both the animal and the human world. It is exactly this all-inclusive approach to animal narratives that makes this book by Boria Sax such worthwhile reading for naturalists, folklorists, cultural historians, literary scholars, and last but not least, the interested generalists."