Birds —by Míchealín Ní Dhochartaigh Birds in general are associated with death transitions in Celtic mythology. Among the Celts, the blackbird was thought to be one of the three Oldest Animals. They are the BLACKBIRD, trout and stag; and they represent the water, air and earth. Manannan, the god of the sea, and the Underworld was known change into a CRANE.  EAGLES were usually linked to death gods; and  CROWS or ravens were linked to death goddesses. The RAVEN is believed to be an oracular bird, and a bearer of messages from the Otherworld. Like ravens, DOVES were perceived as oracular birds, perhaps because of their distinctive call. The Druids believed that certain people could interpret the cries of the raven and were able to communicate in the "language of the birds." On 26 December in Ireland is St. Stephen's Day, originally called "WREN Day," which dates back to the Celtic Winter Solstice ritual of hunting and killing of the wren. Wren Boy's Day itself, regardless of the christianisation of calling it St Stephen's Day, Wren Day is a day that was celebrated in ancient Greece and Rome and in all of the so-called "British Isles." It is a variation of the Oak/Holly King ritual. The Wren, "Little King" of the Waning Year (hiding in an ivy or holly bush), is killed by his counterpart, "ROBIN REDBREAST" of the Waxing Year, whose retreat is the birch, which follows the Celtic Tree Calendar. In some parts of Ireland, this is still celebrated. For example in Kilbaha in co. Clare, the Wren Boys are groups of adult musicians in colourful costumes who go from house to house bearing a tiny effigy of the wren on a bunch of holly. In parts of Co. Mayo, the Wren Boys and Girls are children, also bearing holly bunches, and going door to door singing: "The wren, the wren, the king of the birds, On Stephen's Day was caught in furze; Up with the kettle and down with the pan, And give us some money to bury the wren." Robin Hood: Another version of Wren Day. The Waxing Year Robin also brings us Robin Hood, who is honoured especially in Cornwall, according to Robert Graves in The White Goddess. According to Graves, 'robin' means ''phallus'; also robinhood is a country name for red campion or champion, a cloven petal that suggests a ram's hoof. Thus, "Red Champion" was a title for the witches' god. 'Hood,' or hud or hod, meant the log put at the back of the fire, and it was in this log, cut from the sacred oak, that Robin (the Red Champion) was believed to reside. When the Yule log is burned, Robin Hood escapes up the chimney in the form of a robin, and he is then pursued by Bran, who is disguised as a wren. Sources may include: Celtic Magic by DJ Conway, The Celtic Book of the Dead  by Caitlin Matthews, Celtic Wisdom by Caitlin and John Matthews, Celtic Cross Stitch by Anne Orr and Lesley Clark, Celtic Myth and Magick by Edain McCoy, Pagan Celtic Britain by Anne Ross, Personal knowledge, The White Goddess. by Robert Graves, and A Witches' Bible: The Complete Witches' Handbook by Janet and Stewart Farrar. Page updated 12 Sep 2006 Celtic Background and photograph and Ireland's OWN logo  by Míchealín Daugherty Copyright © 2006 Ireland's OWN All Rights Reserved.