There is a whole realm of birds in folk horror; the screeching owl or murder of crows usually get top billing. But I want to make a case for the robin. In Welsh legend the robin got its famous red breast from getting singed by the fires of hell. Making the robin metal as fuck.

Other traditions have the robin as the bringer of fire; on Guernsey there was none until it was brought across the channel on his wing. To the Bretons the robin not only brought fire but also spoke latin.

Christian tradition tells the robin soothed Jesus during the crucifixion by taking out a prickle from the crown of thorns that had become embedded in His brow. A drop of blood fell on the robin’s chest which he wore as a badge to his bravery.

Thus anyone who kills a robin, a noble bird who carries God’s blood in his veins, will meet great misfortune. In Yorkshire this took the form of condemning all the household livestock to yield red milk, while in Lincolnshire the culprit, human or cat, would suffer a broken limb.

In Wales a death would visit the family and in Ireland an angry red boil would swell up on the assailant’s hand.

Stealing robins eggs was just as bad. Children in Dorset were warned to expect their fingers to grow crooked. In Devon ransacking a robin’s nest would cause all the household crockery to break, and in South Wales a house fire.

German egg thieves meanwhile would die in their beds, lightning having struck their home in the night.

Though cheerful hearing a robin sing is actually a bad portent, especially if one got in the house through an open window. Robin song particularly heralded the death of a baby. In the tale of the Babes in the Wood the robin and his wife the wren cover the dead bodies

which they find uncared for and neglected. From John Webster in The White Devil (1608):

Call the robin redbreast and the wren
Since o’er shady groves they hover
And with leaves and flowers do cover
The friendless bodies of unburied men

Superstitions around the bird informed the terrifying BBC folk horror classic Robin Redbreast (1970) in which an entire town raises a child from birth to be sacrificed.

The most christmassy bird maybe, but also the most goth.

#folkhorror #birdfolklore #robin #robinredbreast #christmas #christmas2020 #crow #owl #johnwebster #welshfolklore #pagan #germanicfolklore #yorkshire #lincolnshire #norfolk #dorset #oldengland #devil #bbcplayfortoday