"Out of the woods of thoughts that grows by night
To be cut down by the sharp axe of light, -
Out of the night, two cocks together crow,
Cleaving the darkness with a silver blow:
And bright before my eyes twin trumpeters stand,
Heralds of splendour, one at either hand,
Each facing each as in a coat of arms:
The milkers lace their boots up at the farms."
[Edward Thomas]
Few animals are as ubiquitous as the humble chicken. We eat them, of course, there are eggs in almost everything - they grace our kitchen towels, grocery bags, restaurant menus, and cottage decor.
Though today they are so ever-present we rarely notice them, chickens have historically had an incredibly important role in folklore and superstition.
We’ll be talking about the folklore of chickens today, and this episode is dedicated to the memory of my mother’s favorite chicken - Polly - who passed away this last week. She was a wonderful bird who will be missed and lived a very long and happy chicken life.
Thanks for listening to another episode of Scholar Minor. I’m glad that you’re here, and I hope you enjoy.
The chicken, or Gallus gallus domesticus, is the modern descendent of a South East Asian jungle fowl, Gallus gallus. It is also the closest living relative of the Tyrannosaurus Rex! Evidence suggests that chickens were domesticated as many as 5,000 years ago, and ever since they have been omnipresent.
The Ancient Egyptians constructed large complexes of ovens to artificially incubate chicken eggs, carefully regulating the temperature with fires and vents. Egg attendants would turn the eggs three to five times per day. While eventually ordinary folks would have access to chickens as well, initially the chicken was associated with the Egyptian royalty and many tombs are decorated with its likeness.
Chickens were widely kept by the Greeks and Romans, and many historians believe that the Romans were largely responsible for spreading the bird around the world. In Greece, the chicken was associated with the goddess Athena, and in Rome their behavior - and unfortunately for the chickens, their entrails - were closely analyzed and used to tell the future - the outcomes of battles in particular.
Eventually, chickens made their way around the globe. Their status as a royal bird may have been diminished over time, but their importance to everyday people continued to grow.
Our introductory poem, “Cock-Crow”, was written by turn-of-the-century British poet Edward Thomas. Like many of his poems, “Cock-Crow” paints an almost tangible picture of a seemingly mundane rural scene - in this case, sunrise and the crowing of roosters.
Roosters - also referred to as cocks - are male chickens, and their crowing has been attributed with profound meaning throughout history. In the Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World - originally published in 1903 - we find many instances of cock-crows being interpreted as a form of divination.
There are quite literally hundreds of examples, ranging from the benign - a cock crowing at night foretells southerly winds the next day - to the decidedly more sinister: a cock crowing at the departure of a guest is a sign of the impending death of that guest.
A rooster crowing at the door of your cellar is the sign of a "speedy marriage", and one crowing almost all day is anticipating a rainstorm.
One of the most well-known associations with the crowing cock is found in the Christian Bible, with Jesus telling Peter that “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.”
In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, the ghost of Hamlet's father disappears at the first crowing of the cock at dawn - which is explained thusly:
"And then it started like a guilty thing
Upon a fearful summons. I have heard
The cock, that is the trumpet of the morn,
Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat
Awake the god of day, and, at his warning,
Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
Th' extravagant and erring spirit hies
To his confine, and of the truth herein
This present object made probation."
The crowing cock also features prominently in Norse mythology. The Poetic Edda includes a poem called the Voluspa, which describes the beginning and the end of the world as described by a Norse seeress, or volva. In the latter part of the poem she describes the end times, Ragnarok. The beginning of the apocalyptic events is announced by three roosters - Fjalar, Gollinkambi, and one unnamed - who awaken the armies of the giants, the Aesir gods, and Hel, respectively.
"On a hill there sat, and smote on his harp,
Eggther the joyous, the giants' warder;
Above him the cock, in the bird-wood crowed,
Fair and red, did Fjalar stand.
Then to the gods, crowed Gollinkambi,
He wakes the heroes, in Odin's hall;
And beneath the earth, does another crow,
The rust-red bird, at the bars of Hel."
Interestingly, in the ancient Persian religion Zoroastrianism, too, a cock was again the herald of a great cosmic battle between darkness and light.
One of the earliest places where chickens were domesticated was China - it's in the Shaanxi province that the oldest evidence of this was found. Chinese folk legends tell us that because of the rooster's reliability as a timekeeper, it was placed with the other animals of the Chinese Zodiac. Paralleling other folklore from around the world, the rooster - because of his morning crowing - was viewed as a banisher of night and evil spirits. Art depicting roosters would be incorporated into the home for luck, and rooster blood sprinkled around a haunted building would solve the issue.
So why do roosters crow? It all comes down to circadian rhythms. All animals, including people, have circadian rhythms, which are the body's internal 24-hour clock that dictates the natural sleep and wake cycle. The master clock in the brain dictates the other systems in the body and ensures an organism shuts down for sleep when they need it.
As will come as no surprise to us humans, environmental cues are incredibly important to regulating these rhythms, light in particular. The brain associates light with daytime, which is why many self-help and medical articles will advise human folks with insomnia to turn off artificial light from screens a good hour before trying to sleep.
When a rooster's brain begins to register the sun coming up, he begins his day - which usually involves looking for food and letting all the other roosters in the area know that he is in charge of his territory. Crowing is his way of letting potential interlopers know he is the boss of his domain - and that he'll fight them if they get too close.
I grew up in a rural area with a substantial chicken population, and I can tell you that the rooster who wakes up first inspires all his rooster neighbors to assert their own authority, too. This is why as soon as one starts crowing, the others will quickly follow suit. For folks unfamiliar with rural life, sometimes there is a misconception that roosters only crow in the mornings. But since this is territorial behavior, roosters will crow all the time - and it can, unfortunately, wear out its welcome after a while!
While symbolism attributed to the cock-crow is impressive, the folklore surrounding hens is also incredibly plentiful. And interestingly, I noticed during my research that a great deal of the superstitions attached to hens is directly related to the welfare of the household. And this is appropriate, as many folks historically relied on having a quantity of hens to produce eggs to eat and sell. They were intimately connected to the wellbeing of the home.
In his 1903 Macedonian Folklore, author George Frederick Abbott describes one of these traditions:
"Another superstitious custom belonging to this day is due to the belief of the Macedonians in the good or ill influence of the 'first foot'. He or she who enters a house first is supposed to bring into it good or bad luck for the whole twelvemonth.
This belief gives rise to a curious observance. The visitor before crossing the threshold picks up a stone - token of strength - or a green twig - emblem of health and fruitfulness, - and lays it on the hearth. He also brings with him some grains of salt which he casts into the flames, and then, squatting by the fire-side, wishes his hosts 'a prosperous year, a plentiful crop, and many blessings.'
Then, as the grains of salt burst and crackle in the fire, he utters the following quaint formula: 'As I am sitting, even so may sit the hen and warm the eggs. As this salt splits, even so may split the eggs of the clucking hen and the chickens come forth.'"
Further emphasizing the importance of having laying chickens to help provide for the family, The Encyclopaedia of Superstitions records many practices intended to ensure the health and productivity of the chickens themselves.
If a woman salutes the stars in the sky, for example, her chickens will be protected from hawks and vultures. If you want your chickens to grow large, wear a large hat while tending to them. And a piece of straw, when taken from a marriage bed and placed in a chicken coup, will insure male or female chicks will hatch depending on the side of the bed you took it from.
Sometimes, of course, the behavior of hens can foretell sinister happenings. We are warned for example that "the sudden fall of hens from the housetop is ominous” and that “if chickens are disturbed at night, and fly down and strike the house where two lovers are courting, it forebodes trouble between them."
In some regions of China, hens were prominently featured in wedding ceremonies, with a boy in the bride's family accompanying her throughout the event with a hen in his arms to represent prosperity. Hens and eggs were closely examined and used for both divination and healing purposes.
Before we go, I’d like to leave you with my favorite piece of wisdom I stumbled across: "When you hear the triumphant cackling of a flock of hens, they are announcing their contributions to the world."
Thanks for joining me another week, everyone. Even when things are hopelessly busy I can’t express how much I enjoy researching and writing these episodes. I am so glad you are listening.
As always, my bibliographical references are in the show notes, as is a link to my website, www.ursaminorcreations.com, where you can find past episodes and some additional content. Scholar Minor now has a YouTube channel, too, so you can also listen there.
Thank you for your support! Have a beautiful week and I’ll talk to you again very soon.