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Subject: Slowly through a Land of Stone
Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 22:51:44 +0000
From: Pwl
To: RavenList
HRAERRKK!
Found this shiny on some dark and moonless night. It glittered at me
with an inner fire. Reminding me of some ancestral spirit-home. So I
stashed it with my piles of unanswered shiny-mail. (:>)
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[poem text was here]
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From pp126....
Gavin Maxwell ~ Raven Seek Thy Brother
First published 1968. This edition 1970. Pan Books Ltd, London.
Uhh, Maxwell did not write the poem: it *could* be from "Postscript to
Iceland" by Louis MacNiece, but the references are muddled, unspecific.
If anybird can confirm or otherwise, I would be pleased to know.
BTW, despite the title, the book is not about ravens. It's mostly about
Otters, being the sequel to "Ring of Bright Water". These true tales
are of beauty and sorrow in mid-60's Scotland. The explanation may
perhaps be found on pp17....
'A single raven swept by, high on the hustling wind, his deep guttural
croaks almost muted by its force. I remembered how Wilfred Thesiger had
once told me that when a camel caravan in Southern Arabia would sight a
single raven overhead the Bedouin would attempt to annul the evil omen
by calling to it, "Raven, seek thy brother!" It seemed too late now for
that invocation.'
Caw-regards from Pwl.
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