Meditation on Owls

Dr. Omed posted the following mini-dissertation in the comments section of Thistle & Hemlock:

Owl, in Middle English "oule;" Old English "ille" cognate with Low German "ule" and German "eule" all from the presumed proto-Germanic "uwwalo" or "uwwilo." Another derivation of owl is Icelandic "ugla" cognate to "ugglier" which came into English via Scandinavian as "ugly." In contrast to the modern meaning of ugly, "uggligr" means fearful, dreadful. Owl in Hindi is "ul" or "ulu;" Latin "bubo" Greek "buas" Hebrew "o-ah" Nepali "huhu."

The Owl Lodge was an old institution among the Oglala Sioux. The Sioux venerated the Snowy Owl; warriors who had shown bravery in battle could wear a cap of owl feathers. However, many Athabascan tribes fear the owl and consider it taboo. The Yakama tribes in Washington State regard the owl as a powerful totem.

The Hindu Goddess Laxmi rides an owl.

There was flightless owl species on Andros Island in the Bahamas, now extinct and known only from recovered remains. "Tytopollens" stood one meter tall and according to old local tales were apparently thought to be leprechaun like imps called "chickeharnies," with three toes, and able to turn their heads all the way around.

Athena Pronoia's bird was a little owl, Athena Noctua; as it was held sacred and thus protected the owl inhabited the acropolis in great numbers.

Australian Aborigines believe owls represent the souls of women, as bat do for the men, Thus, an owl is every man's sister, daughter, and mother.

Owl in Scots Gaelic is "coileach;" cognate "Cailleach" means old woman. The owl is often associated with the crone aspect of the Goddess.

The earliest image of an owl may be a paleolithic drawing of Snowy Owls (Nyctea Scandiaca) in a cave in France. Other owl petroglyphs have been found from the Victoria River Valley in North Australia to the Columbia River in Washington. A Screech Owl is part of a bas relief of Mayan ruler "3" in Dos Pilas in Guatemala.

"I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls." Job 30:29

<snip> ...I've been trying to write a poem on owls, the owls that are not what they seem, for several years now. Thus far I have failed utterly.

Impressive work. As an aside, I've found that a lot of study on a topic can kinda plug up the poetic works. The temptation is to frustrate oneself while trying to throw in everything one has learned.

I had this same problem in my unfininshed poem on the Columbia disaster (I never got further than the introit). I bought a couple of special issues, read the official biographies of the astronauts who died, followed the theories on the cause of the disaster ... and ended up totally blocked. Finally had to let go of the project to move ahead with any kind of writing at all.

For good or ill, I did not have this problem with the Aubergine sestina which appears below. I did a bit of research, and a couple of the links reflect said research. Guess I did ok — Josh called it "rather lovely" in an e-mail.

As for owls, I'm content to ask them to make cameo appearances in an occassional poem.