Raven banner

File:Del av hjälm vendel vendeltid möjligen oden.jpg helmet plate showing a mounted varrior with two ravens flying overhead. Potentially also a raven crest on the helmet. Compare with germanic boar helmets.]]

File:Prakthjälm, Vendel XIV, SHM 1996-09-02 (raven).png (late 500s) at the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities.]]

File:Vendel I shield (DIG 56908) (right raven).jpg (early 600s) at the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities.]]

The raven is a common iconic figure in Norse mythology. The highest god Odin had two ravens named Huginn and Muninn ("thought" and "memory" respectively) who flew around the world bringing back tidings to their master. Therefore, one of Odin's many names was the "raven god" (Hrafnaguð). In Gylfaginning (c. 1220), the medieval Icelandic historian Snorri Sturluson explains:

Odin was also closely linked to ravens because in Norse myths he received the fallen warriors at Valhalla, and ravens were linked with death and war due to their predilection for carrion. It is consequently likely that they were regarded as manifestations of the Valkyries, goddesses who chose the valiant dead for military service in Valhalla.{{cite web|url=http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/valkyrie.shtml|title=Viking Answer Lady Webpage - Valkyries, Wish-Maidens, and Swan-Maids|website=www.vikinganswerlady.com}}

A further connection between ravens and Valkyries was indicated in the shapeshifting abilities of goddesses and Valkyries, who could appear in the form of birds.Examples of this occur in Þrymskviða, stanzas 3 and 4, when Freya lends her bird fetch to Loki; and in the Valkyrie Kára of whom an account survives in Hrómundar saga Gripssonar.

The raven appears in almost every skaldic poem describing warfare.Hjelmquist 142. To make war was to feed and please the raven (hrafna seðja, hrafna gleðja). An example of this is found in Norna-Gests þáttr, where Regin recites the following poem after Sigurd kills the sons of Hunding:

Above all, kennings used in Norse poetry identify the raven as the bird of blood, corpses and battle;Hjelmquist 143. he is the gull of the wave of the heap of corpses, who screams dashed with hail and craves morning steak as he arrives at the sea of corpses ({{lang|non|Hlakkar hagli stokkin már valkastar báru, krefr morginbráðar er kemr at hræs sævi}}).Hjelmquist citing Fornmanna sögur III p. 148, in Hjelmquist 143.

In black flocks, the ravens hover over the corpses and the skald asks where they are heading ({{lang|non|Hvert stefni þér hrafnar hart með flokk hinn svarta}}).In a poem by Þórðr in Bjarnar Saga Hitdælakappa, p. 67, cited in Hjelmquist 143. The raven goes forth in the blood of those fallen in battle ({{lang|non|Ód hrafn í valblóði}}).Stanza 2, in Krákumál, cited in Hjelmquist 143. He flies from the field of battle with blood on his beak, human flesh in his talons and the reek of corpses from his mouth ({{lang|non|Með dreyrgu nefi, hold loðir í klóum en hræs þefr ór munni}}).Stanza 2 and 3, in Haraldskvæði, cited in Hjelmquist 143.

The ravens who were the messengers of the highest god, Huginn and Muninn, increasingly had hellish connotations, and as early as in the Christian Sólarljóð, stanza 67, the ravens of Hel(l) (heljar hrafnar) who tear the eyes off backtalkers are mentioned. Two curses in the Poetic Edda say "may ravens tear your heart asunder" ({{lang|non|Þit skyli hjarta rafnar slíta}}).in stanza 8 of Guðrúnarkviða II cited in Hjelmquist 144. and "the ravens shall tear out your eyes in the high gallows" ({{lang|non|Hrafnar skulu þér á hám galga slíta sjónir ór}}).In stanza 45 in Fjölsvinnsmál cited in Hjelmquist 144. Ravens are thus seen as instruments of divine (if harsh and unpleasant) justice.

Despite the violent imagery associated with them, early Scandinavians regarded the raven as a largely positive figure; battle and harsh justice were viewed favorably in Norse culture.E.g., Woolf 63–81; Poole passim. Many Old Norse personal names referred to the raven, such as Hrafn,E.g., Gunnlaugs saga passim; Reykdæla saga ok Víga-Skútu §13. HrafnkelE.g., Hrafnkels saga passim. and Hrafnhild.E.g., Ketils saga hœngs § 3.''

The raven banner was used by a number of Viking warlords regarded in Norse tradition as the sons of Ragnar Lodbrok. The first mention of a Viking force carrying a raven banner is in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. For the year 878, the Chronicle relates:

In the winter of the same year, the brother of Ivar and Halfdan landed in Devonshire, Wessex, with 23 ships, and he was killed there along with 800 other people and 40 of his soldiers. The war banner (guþfana) which they called "Raven" was also taken.

The 12th-century Annals of St Neots claims that a raven banner was present with the Great Heathen Army and adds insight into its seiðr- (witchcraft-) influenced creation and totemic and oracular nature:

Geffrei Gaimar's Estorie des Engles (written around 1140) mentions the Hrafnsmerki being borne by the army of Ubbe at the Battle of Cynwit (878): "[t]he Raven was Ubbe's banner (gumfanun). He was the brother of Iware; he was buried by the vikings in a very big mound in Devonshire, called Ubbelawe."Lukman, 141–142.

In the 10th century, the raven banner seems to have been adopted by Norse-Gaelic kings of Dublin and Northumbria. Many of the Norse-Gaelic dynasts in Britain and Ireland were of the Uí Ímair clan, which claimed descent from Ragnar Lodbrok through his son Ivar.

A triangular banner appearing to depict a tilted cross (possibly a bird) appears on a penny minted by Olaf Cuaran around 940. The coin features a roughly right isosceles triangular standard, with the two equilateral sides situated at the top and staff, respectively. Along the hypotenuse are a series of five tabs or tassels. The staff is topped by what appears to be a cross; this may indicate a fusion of pagan and Christian symbolism.{{cite book |last1=Barraclough |first1=E.M.C. |title=Flags of the World |date=1971 |publisher=William Cloves & Sons Ltd |location=Great Britain |pages=3–4 |isbn=0723213380}}

File:York banner penny (frontside).jpg|Banner Penny, obverse

File:York banner penny (backside).jpg|Banner Penny, reverse

File:York raven penny.jpg|Raven Penny, obverse and reverseHerbert Appold Grueber, Handbook of the coins of Great Britain and Ireland in the British Museum. London/Oxford: British Museum. Dept. of Coins and Medals & the Clarendon Press, 1899, p. 20 (no. 117).

The raven banner was also a standard used by the Norse Jarls of Orkney. According to the Orkneyinga Saga, it was made for Sigurd the Stout by his mother, a völva or shamanic seeress. She told him that the banner would "bring victory to the man it's carried before, but death to the one who carries it." The saga describes the flag as "a finely made banner, very cleverly embroidered with the figure of a raven, and when the banner fluttered in the breeze, the raven seemed to be flying ahead." Sigurd's mother's prediction came true when, according to the sagas, all of the bearers of the standard met untimely ends.Orkneyinga Saga § 11. The "curse" of the banner ultimately fell on Jarl Sigurd himself at the Battle of Clontarf:

Earl Sigurd had a hard battle against Kerthialfad, and Kerthialfad came on so fast that he laid low all who were in the front rank, and he broke the array of Earl Sigurd right up to his banner, and slew the banner-bearer. Then he got another man to bear the banner, and there was again a hard fight. Kerthialfad smote this man too his death blow at once, and so on one after the other all who stood near him. Then Earl Sigurd called on Thorstein the son of Hall of Sida, to bear the banner, and Thorstein was just about to lift the banner, but then Asmund the White said, "Don't bear the banner! For all they who bear it get their death." "Hrafn the Red!" called out Earl Sigurd, "bear thou the banner." "Bear thine own devil thyself," answered Hrafn. Then the earl said, "`Tis fittest that the beggar should bear the bag;'" and with that he took the banner from the staff and put it under his cloak. A little after Asmund the White was slain, and then the earl was pierced through with a spear.Njal's Saga §156.

File:Raven banner (Bayeux Tapestry).jpg, showing a Norman knight carrying a banner with bird motif, assumed to be a raven banner.]]

The army of King Cnut the Great of England, Norway and Denmark bore a raven banner made from white silk at the Battle of Ashingdon in 1016. The Encomium Emmae reports that Cnut had

a banner which gave a wonderful omen. I am well aware that this may seem incredible to the reader, but nevertheless I insert it in my veracious work because it is true: This banner was woven of the cleanest and whitest silk and no picture of any figures was found on it. In case of war, however, a raven was always to be seen, as if it were woven into it. If the Danes were going to win the battle, the raven appeared, beak wide open, flapping its wings and restless on its feet. If they were going to be defeated, the raven did not stir at all, and its limbs hung motionless.Trætteberg 549–555.

The Lives of Waltheof and his Father Sivard Digri (The Stout), the Earl of Northumberland, written by a monk of Crowland Abbey (possibly the English historian William of Ramsey), reports that the Danish jarl of Northumbria, Sigurd, was given a banner by an unidentified old sage. The banner was called Ravenlandeye.Lukman 148. The Crowland author comments on the name of the banner, "quod interpretatur corvus terrae terror," "which means Raven, terror of the land."

According to the Heimskringla, Harald Hardrada had a standard called Landøyðan or "Land-waster." This is often assumed to be a raven banner based on the similarity of its name to Sigurd of Northumbria's "Ravenlandeye," though there is no direct evidence connecting Harald's standard with ravens. In a conversation between Harald and King Sweyn II of Denmark,

Sveinn asked Haraldr which of his possessions of his he valued most highly. He answered that it was his banner (merki), Landøyðan. Thereupon Sveinn asked what virtue it had to be accounted so valuable. Haraldr replied that it was prophesied that victory would be his before whom this banner was borne; and added that this had been the case ever since he had obtained it. Thereupon Sveinn said, "I shall believe that your flag has this virtue if you fight three battles with King Magnús, your kinsman, and are victorious in all."Haralds saga Sigurðarsonar § 22.

Years later, during Harald's invasion of England, Harald fought a pitched battle against two English earls outside York. Harald's Saga relates that

when King Haraldr saw that the battle array of the English had come down along the ditch right opposite them, he had the trumpets blown and sharply urged his men to the attack, raising his banner called Landøyðan. And there so strong an attack was made by him that nothing held against it.Haralds saga Sigurðarsonar § 85.

File:Bayeux raven banner 2.png

Harald's army flew the banner at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, where it was carried by a warrior named Frírek. After Harald was struck by an arrow and killed, his army fought fiercely for possession of the banner, and some of them went berserk in their frenzy to secure the flag. In the end the "magic" of the banner failed, and the bulk of the Norwegian army was slaughtered, with only a few escaping to their ships.Haralds saga Sigurðarsonar § 88.

Other than the dragon banner of Olaf II of Norway, the Landøyðan of Harald Hardrada is the only early Norwegian royal standard described by Snorri Sturluson in the Heimskringla.Cappelen 34–37.

In two panels of the famous Bayeux tapestry, standards are shown which appear to potentially be raven banners (although one is small and not given a motif). The Bayeux tapestry was commissioned by Bishop Odo, the half-brother of William the Conqueror; as one of the combatants at the Battle of Hastings, Odo would have been familiar with the standards carried into the fight. In one of the panels, depicting a Norman cavalry charge against an English shield-wall, a charging Norman knight is depicted with a semicircular banner emblazoned with a standing black bird. In a second, depicting the deaths of Harold Godwinson's brothers, a triangular banner closely resembling that shown on Olaf Cuaran's coin lies broken on the ground. Scholars are divided as to whether these are simply relics of the Normans' Scandinavian heritage (or for that matter, the Scandinavian influence in Anglo-Saxon England) or whether they reflect an undocumented Norse presence in either the Norman or English army.Barraclough passim. It should, of course, be noted that by 1066, all of the armies involved in hostilities in the British Isles, Norwegian, English and Norman, were at least nominally Christian. The Normans were in many ways, including linguistically, quite far removed from their Norse origins.

There is no indication that the raven banner was ever carried as a universal flag of Scandinavians.Engene 1–2; see also Barraclough passim.

In modern times the Danish Guard Hussar Regiment (est. 1762) seemingly used a raven banner as their coat of arms, perhaps an allusion to the Viking warriors. The raven symbol is still in use by the regiment's 1st Battalion 1st Armoured infantry company, in the left sleeve badge.{{cite web|title=Sleeve Insignia GHR|url=https://www.arma-dania.dk/public/timeline/_md_genstande_view.php?editid1=1480|website=arma-dania.dk|access-date=19 February 2016|language=da|archive-date=2 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160302213027/https://www.arma-dania.dk/public/timeline/_md_genstande_view.php?editid1=1480|url-status=dead}}

From the foundation of the collaborationist Nasjonal Samling party in Norway in 1933 until the end of World War 2, the party's paramilitary group and youth organisation, the Hirden and Unghirden, carried raven banners as military unit flags.{{cite book |last1=Sæther |first1=Orvar |date=1941 |title=Hirdboken: hirdens historie og oppgaver |trans-title=The Hird book: The hirds history and tasks |url=https://www.nb.no/items/a7f95c0e405897481e8c66b519500ef5? |url-status= |url-access= |format= |language=nb |location= Norway|publisher=Nasjonal Samlings Rikstrykkeri |isbn= |archive-url= |archive-date= |via= |quote=}} Symbols and iconography from the viking period were celebrated and appropriated by the Nasjonal Samling party for nationalistic reasons.

The coat of arms of the Norwegian Intelligence Service features two ravens representing Huginn and Muninn, the ravens providing the god Odin with information.[https://forsvaret.no/fakta/organisasjon/Etterretningstjenesten Norwegian Intelligence Service website, in Norwegian]{{cite news |url=http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2008/09/09/546330.html |title=Mange vil bli spion |first=Kristoffer |last=Egeberg |date=10 September 2008 |work=Dagbladet |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403015712/http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2008/09/09/546330.html |archive-date=3 April 2017 |url-status=dead |access-date=1 February 2020}}

The coat of arms of Shetland depicts a longship with a raven on the sail and an alternative form of the banner (black raven on a rectangular, red field) is used as the symbol of Up Helly Aa, a festival that celebrates the Islands' Norse heritage. The coat of arms of the Isle of Man, a formerly Norse-dominated kingdom, also features a raven, but as a supporter on the right.

The Eastern Counties Rugby Union (ECRU) adopted the raven as its badge in 1926. It was chosen as representing the heritage of the constituent counties – then Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex; now Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire – as part of the Danelaw.{{cite web|url=http://www.ecrurugby.com/page/about-us/history/the-ecru-raven-8657/|title=About Us – History – The ECRU Raven|website=www.ecrurugby.com}}{{Non-primary source needed|date=June 2024}}

File:Emblem for the 1-I-GHR.svg|Shoulder sleeve insignia of the Danish Guard Hussar Regiment's 1st Battalion 1st Armoured infantry company

File:NasjonalSamling-Rikshirden-Ravnebanneret.png|Raven banner used by Hirden in Norway.

File:Coat of arms of the Norwegian Intelligence Service.svg|Coat of arms of the Norwegian Intelligence Service with Odins ravens Huginn and Muninn

File:Uyeasound Up Helly Aa squad arriving at Baltasound Junior High School - geograph.org.uk - 3780756 (cropped).jpg|Raven banner at Shetlands Norse heritage festival Up Helly Aa

File:Coat of arms of the Isle of Man.svg|Coat of arms of the Isle of Man, a formerly Norse-dominated kingdom, with a raven as the right supporter.

• Cultural depictions of ravens
• Fairy flag
• Hrafnsmál
• Jagdstaffel 18, which used a black raven insignia
• Uí Ímair
• Valravn

{{Reflist|3}}

• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. (English translation). Everymans Library, 1991.
• Barraclough, Captain E.M.C. "The Raven Flag". Flag Bulletin. Vol. X, No. 2–3. Winchester, MA: The Flag Research Center (FRC), 1969.
• Cappelen, Hans. "Litt heraldikk hos Snorre." Heraldisk tidsskrift No. 51, 1985 p. 34–37. Also printed in Icelandic as "Heimskringla og skjaldarmerkin", Morgunbladir, Reykjavik 3.11.1985
• Dumville, David and Michael Lapidge, eds. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Vol 17: The Annals of St. Neots with Vita Prima Sancti Neoti. Woodbridge: D.S. Brewer. 1985.
• Engene, Jan Oskar. "The Raven Banner and America." [https://nava.org/nava-news NAVA News], Vol. XXIX, No. 5, 1996, pp. 1–2.
• Forte, Angelo, Richard Oram and Frederik Pedersen. [https://books.google.com/books?id=_vEd859jvk0C Viking Empires]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 {{ISBN|0-521-82992-5}}.
• Grimm, Jakob. Teutonic Mythology. 4 vols. Trans. James Steven Stallybras. New York: Dover, 2004.
• [https://runeberg.org/antiqtid/12/ Hjelmquist, Theodor. "Naturskildringarna i den norröna diktningen". In Hildebrand, Hans (ed). Antikvarisk tidskrift för Sverige, Vol 12. Ivar Hæggströms boktryckeri, Stockholm. 1891.]
• Hrafnhildur Bodvarsdottir. The Function of the Beasts of Battle in Old English Poetry. PhD Dissertation, 1976, State University of New York at Stony Brook. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International. 1989.
• Lukman, N. "The Raven Banner and the Changing Ravens: A Viking Miracle from Carolingian Court Poetry to Saga and Arthurian Romance." Classica et Medievalia 19 (1958): pp. 133–51.
• Njal's Saga. Trans. George DaSent. London, 1861.
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=vPifjS1BLyEC Orkneyinga Saga: The History of the Earls of Orkney]. Trans. Pálsson, Hermann and Edwards, Paul (1978). London: Hogarth Press. {{ISBN|0-7012-0431-1}}. Republished 1981, Harmondsworth: Penguin. {{ISBN|0-14-044383-5}}.
• Poole, R. G. [https://books.google.com/books?id=ND5Su1szecAC&q=Viking+Poems+on+War+and+Peace Viking Poems on War and Peace: A Study in Skaldic Narrative]. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 1991.
• Sturluson, Snorri. "King Harald's Saga." Heimskringla. Penguin Classics, 2005.
• Trætteberg, Hallvard. "Merke og Fløy." Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder, Vol. XI, Oslo, 1966, columns 549–555.
• Woolf, Rosemary. "The Ideal of Men Dying with their Lord in the Germania and in The Battle of Maldon." Anglo-Saxon England Vol. 5, 1976.

{{Commons category-inline|Raven banner}}

• [http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/banners.shtml Viking Answer Lady on Viking flags]
• [http://www.northvegr.org/lore/njal/ Njal's Saga – Public domain edition of translated by George DaSent, 1861, at Northvegr.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20030822013007/http://www.northvegr.org/lore/njal/ |date=2003-08-22 }}
• [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/xn_raven.html The Raven Banner]

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