The Priest and the Bird

This story is one that I made up (mostly as I went along, as you may notice!). However, it draws on a number of folklore traditions about robins, both accounts of how they got their red breasts, but also their curious and magical behaviour. The Church has accrued a number of traditions about this bird, such as the redness coming from Christ's blood as the previously brown bird tried to pull out either the thorns from the crown or the nails from Jesus' wrists during the crucifixion, or that it was a burn mark from hell fire as the bird tried to bring water to those in torment. In either case the redness results from an act of mercy.
There are suggestions of a link to the mythology of Thor, but this has proved elusive to pin down beyond endless repetition of the same vague reference on websites. Irish myth states that Queen Medb has a pet robin and a pet squirrel, and one of the Welsh triads gives the robin as amongst the most blessed of animals.
I wanted to record a story about robins for the last few weeks because, for a brief time, the garden was host to nesting robins and their fledglings - till some bastard cat ate all the babies. The parents still visit the garden and continue to be well fed, so I am in hopes that they will nest again next year and have more luck. It was fascinating to watch the little ones growing and see the parents whizzing back and forth to the feeding stand. Work has been so manic it has taken me till now to find the brain space to upload a story.


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