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expand1994 (1)
1Author:  Greenwell Dora (Dorothy) 1821-1882Add
 Title:  Camera obscura  
 Published:  1994 
 Subjects:  University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | Chadwyck-Healey, English Poetry | CH-EnglPoetry 
 Description: “Why is the wren, even in our present day, sung and celebrated as such in Ireland? Why was it the augurs' favourite bird, and why did the Druids also represent it as the king of all birds? I find the best answer to these inquiries in Kelly's ‘Indo-European Tradition and Folk-lore,’ where it is stated that, though the exalted pretensions of this smallest of European birds are not unknown to German tradition, it is in the Celtic memory they have been best preserved. In the legends of Bretagne and Normandy, he is spoken of expressly as a fire-bringer. A messenger was wanted to bring fire from heaven, and the wren undertook the perilous task, which nearly cost the bold bird its life, for its plumage was burnt off even to the down, whereupon the other birds gave each of them one of their feathers to clothe the naked and shivering little king.”
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