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The Wren
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The King of Birds
One story goes that God wished to know who was the king of all the birds so he set a challenge. The bird who flew highest and furthest would win. The birds all began together but they dropped out one by one until none were left but the great eagle. The eagle eventually grew tired and began to drop lower in the sky. At this point, a tiny wren who had hitched a lift emerged from beneath the eagle's wing to soar higher and further than all the others.
One story goes that God wished to know who was the king of all the birds so he set a challenge. The bird who flew highest and furthest would win. The birds all began together but they dropped out one by one until none were left but the great eagle. The eagle eventually grew tired and began to drop lower in the sky. At this point, a tiny wren who had hitched a lift emerged from beneath the eagle's wing to soar higher and further than all the others.
One
In various parts of Europe however from C16th to C19th there were wren hunts especially on St Stephens day. They were thought to be part of an older pagan ritual when a bird was offered to propitiate the gods.
In C19th Isle of Man groups of boys would go from house to house carrying a wren suspended by the legs and chanting a brief rhyme...
We hunted the wren for Robin the Bobbin
We hunted the wren for Jack of the Can
We hunted the wren for Robbin the Bobbin
We hunted the wren for everyone
In exchange for a small coin householders would be given a feather from the wren and at the day's end the wren would be solemnly buried.
The ceremony was believed to have originated in ancient times when the island was haunted by an uncommonly beautiful fairy, irresistible to men and youths. (It's always the woman!) Many were so enamoured that they followed her into the sea and drowned. In time it was feared that the island would lose all its defenders....To the rescue comes a knight-errant who devises a way to counter her charms and destroy her. However our uncommonly beautiful fairy escapes this fate by transforming into a wren.....As she flies off however a spell is cast compelling her every winter to take on this same form until the time she is slain by human hand.....
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