human
Life of Alfred the Great, when describing a victory gained by that king near Kynwith Castle says:
gpt
Doubtless much of the still lingering aversion for crows, ravens, and magpies, is but the remains of the dislike of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors to the emblem of their once dreaded mortal enemies, or it is, perhaps, more probable that each people had preserved a similar traditionary faith in the supernatural character of the bird from their common remote ancestors. Indeed, reference is made to the raven as a war emblem in the fragment of heroic Anglo-Saxon poetry, containing part of a description of the battle at Finnesburg, which was found on the cover of a MS. of homilies, in the library at Lambeth Palace, by Dr. Hicks, in the sixteenth century. On the defeat of the warriors, the MS. says,--
human
The raven wandered, swart and sallow brown.