The Crows of St Andrews: The Folklore Behind the Food-Stealing Fiend

There are murders in St Andrews: Foretold by great echoing caws and flurries of silky black feathers, the culprits descend upon their unlucky victims with a vengeance. Some name them servile, when they strip off the flesh of rotten roadkill or hunt down scrambling rodents; others name them thieves, glittery-eyed crooks that will steal your sandwich or nip your pastry, smiling their cheeky smile and cawing all the while. Reader, beware of these murders — the murders of crows. 

Indeed, this town’s air never seems to be empty of the crow’s long guttural caw, its stone turrets and spindly iron gates never unclustered by the creature’s claws. A prevalence of species one might chalk up to optimal feeding grounds (of student-discarded rubbish) or high-up nooks ideal for nesting (the ruined St Andrews Cathedral, for one) takes on a more twisted definition when examined through the lens of Celtic folklore. 

The crow is often heralded as a harbinger of fate. In Irish mythology, the Morrígan, a war goddess, appears as a crow. This goddess was also named Badb, which in Old Irish translates to “crow.” The Morrígan flew over battlefields, foretelling doom and death, victory and defeat. She was also known to directly influence the battle’s outcome, often by inspiring confusion and fear among soldiers with her screaming cries. 

The Morrígan was known to be a triple goddess, possessing three apparent forms, and at times appearing as one of three sisters. This triple form might, to the Shakespeare enthusiast, recall the Weïrd Sisters of Macbeth, who appear throughout the play and prophesies Macbeth’s ascension to the Scottish throne and serve, not only as voices of the future, but as affirmations for his bloody actions, particularly against Kind Duncan. Played by Kathryn Hunter in The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021), the Weïrd Sisters are singularly crow-like, with voices both raspy and rumbling, wearing a black dress, and movements that mimic the fluttering of a crow’s wings or the pointy swivel of their beak. In this adaptation of Macbeth again we see the crow’s close relationship with fate — but in Celtic folklore, the creature is tied up in even bloodier tales. 

Crows are also commonly portrayed as travelers between realms. In the 1913 volume of Irish Witchcraft and Demonology by St. John Seymour, the bird is said to be a shapeshifted form of the Devil. When landed on a poor soul’s head, it can cause him to froth at the mouth from speaking in evil vehemence, wholly given over to demonic possession. The volume also recounts a story of a witch at the gallows: just before the hanging, the witch disappears and a raven assumes her place. The raven is a member of the crow’s Corvidae family, and likewise associated with themes of possession, sorcery, and evil. 

In Irish mythology, Banshees are female wraiths. When alighted on a house, often in the form of a raven, they were believed to foretell the imminent death of a family member. The Banshee was characterized by its howling, blood-curdling scream, a sonorous omen of impending horror, death, and grief. One cannot deny that there is something uneasy, something sinister, about the sight of a crow perched upon one’s own roof; it watches, black eyes sparkling, cocks its neck as you stumblingly unlock the front door, and flies off with a rustle as you pass through the threshold. 

But perhaps what makes the crow so uncanny a creature is its closeness to humans. The two are omnivores and opportunistic. Both choose partners for life, seek out community, and are cunningly intelligent and cruelly creative. The crow, notably, is a skilled mimic and can even parrot human voices. Maybe what makes humans so adverse to us is its very familiarity. Perhaps when looking into the eye of a crow, we see in the black enough glittering intelligence to recognize ourselves — and enough glazed unfamiliarity to only augment our terror. So if you find yourself cutting through trees alone at dusk, do not think that the voice you hear beyond the fog is that of a friend. It may be a mere imitation of the cunning crow, meant to lure and loll you into the clutches of a grinning evil.

Illustration by Haalah Hashim