Magpies in Nordland?

[DarkPumpkin]

In my Nordlond, the magpies are Australian. Most beautiful morning song and cheeky buggers. And there are kookaburras.

[Farmer]

Originally Posted by DarkPumpkin

In my Nordlond, the magpies are Australian. Most beautiful morning song and cheeky buggers. And there are kookaburras.

Shouldn't that be something like Det store sørlandet instead of Nordlond? ;-)

Also, do the Maggies go swoop crazy in Spring?

[LokRobster]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Nordlondr raven-folk are more like the "kenku" from D&D type games. Full-sized human, bipedal, etc.

That being said, the art Ksenia did for the hrafnarfolk is amazing.

Ksenia’s representation of the Crow-Folk hrafnarfolk is my favorite art in the book.

whs, I think you’d enjoy the write-ups of the races in the Folk book; the races and character types have a wider use than D&D stand-ins. I feel like they’ve been shifted by the Nordic lens enough to be their own thing., and interesting and entertaining things at that.

[Prime Evil]

Norðlond is a pseudo-Viking setting, so it's worth comparing Doug's treatment of corvidae with the literary tradition. (Australian magpies aren't actually part of the corvid family, but they're close enough unless you want to be pedantic).

Wolves and ravens appear in Old Norse and Old English literature as omens of battle. Lines 106-107 of the Battle of Maldon provide a good example. Eagles are associated with heroism in battle, but ravens have darker associations. They are depicted as carrion birds, feeding exclusively on the slain.

Professor Jackson Crawford has a nice video reviewing the depiction of ravens in Old Norse literature:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzY1cXFr7fU

In Old English studies, wolves and ravens are sometimes known as the beasts of battle. For example, see Charles H. Whitman. "The Birds of Old English Literature." Journal of Germanic Philology 2 (1899).

So now I'm thinking of creating a fanatical hrafnarfolk cleric of the Allfather....

On a tangent, living in Australia, I've got a pair of magpies that visit us daily for food. They'll actually hop into the house and sing for us. They've become very friendly with the entire family, but hate all other birds. They even attack our chickens in the backyard.

[dcarson]

Originally Posted by Polkageist

Oh, now I want to add in elephant, gator, coyote, raccoon, squirrel.

Hawk-men (DIIIIIIVE)

And moose to go with squirrel.