The owl as a symbol of night: an etching in George Wither’s A Collection of Emblemes, Ancient and Moderne (1635).
The owl as a symbol of calm, in Wither’s Collection of Emblemes.
This idea of the owl as a creature of the dark night who is not troubled by frantic daytime chaos and who therefore has time to ponder and contemplate is an interesting one because it may go part of the way towards explaining the owl as a symbol of wisdom. It may not be simply the human-shaped head of the bird that makes it seem wise, but also the fact that it is awake at a time when it can avoid the alarms and confusions of the day. Another emblematic owl in Wither’s collection symbolizes the British love of the stiff upper lip.5 Here the owl represents stoicism and calm in the face of fury. The picture shows an owl sitting quietly on a perch while being mobbed by angry birds and the epigram instructs that ‘We best shall quiet clamorous Throngs, When we ourselves can rule our Tongues.’ The author expands on this theme in the accompanying poem:
When I observe the Melancholic Owls,
Considering with what patience they sustain
The many clamours of the greater Fowls;
And how the little Chirpers they disdain . . .
Me thinks by their example I am taught
To sleight the slanders of Injurious Tongues;
To set the scoffs of censurers at naught,
And with a brave neglect to bear our wrongs.
The owl as a symbol of wisdom, in Wither’s Collection of Emblemes.
His third owl emblem portrays the owl as a symbol of wisdom and learning. It shows an owl standing on an open book, with the epigram ‘By Study and by Watchfulness, The Gem of Knowledge we possess’.6 The poem beneath the emblem is a prolonged plea to students to avoid lust, unlawful appetites and sottishness. If they fail to do this he concludes, ‘You are not what the Athenian owl implies, But what our English owlet signifies.’ It is not surprising to see the owl of Athens put forward by Wither as the symbol of wisdom, but why the poor little English owlet should be made to represent a lustful, lawless drunkard is not at all clear.
The owl as a symbol of mortality, in Wither’s Collection of Emblemes.
Wither’s fourth owl emblem is a more sombre image, with the owl here standing on a human skull.7 The epigram above it states ‘Whilst thou dost here enjoy thy breath, Continue mindful of thy Death.’ The poem enlarges on this theme, warning the reader not to put off until tomorrow the things that should be done today, because our time on Earth is so limited. The role of the owl here is that of the melancholy night-bird that inhabits graveyards and is associated with death.
Brown Owl’s Warrant Badge, a bronze pin worn by UK Girl Guides between 1919 and 1966.
Leaping forward in time we come to a very different kind of owl emblem, a badge worn by the leader of a girls’ scouting group. The Girl Guides movement, the female equivalent of the Boy Scouts, was founded in 1910 and it soon became clear that younger girls (seven to ten years) also wanted to join and that they needed a separate organization to suit their age. It was decided to call them Brownies, after the helpful children in a story by Juliana Horatia Ewing, written in 1870. The Brownie movement started officially in 1914 and the adult leader of a Brownie Pack was called a Brown Owl. She wore a special badge, a Girl Guide Brown Owl Pin Warrant Badge, showing the head of a brown owl with long curving ear tufts. Early examples of these owl pins have now become collectors’ items. A Brown Owl Blanket Patch spelled out in some detail what qualities were expected from a Brown Owl. Stared at by a small owl with a somewhat startled expression, the words on the blanket patch read: Brave, Reliable, Organized, Wonderful, Nice, Outward, Wise and Loveable. As a symbolically virtuous owl this would take some beating. Brown Owl was sometimes assisted by individuals known as Tawny Owl or Snowy Owl. When asked why their leaders were called owls, one of the Brownies replied: ‘Because of the Brownie story. Tommy and Betty went to the wise owl in the wood and she guided them to do the right thing.’
In more modern times the owl is still widely used as an emblem, but today the thinking behind its selection as an appropriate symbol is less precise. For example, in Barcelona a company that installs neon lighting erected a huge owl on top of a building on the Avinguda Diagonal at the point where it meets Passeig de Sant Joan. The idea was simply to use the intense stare of the owl’s eyes as a way of advertising bright neon lighting. When it was first put up it emitted hypnotizing circles of light from its eyes all through the night. In 2003 this lighting effect was stopped – possibly because it was too intimidating for nocturnal Catalans – but the bird itself remains in place, one of the largest owl images in the world.
In the realm of politics the emblematic owl was introduced as a minor theme in the McCain/Obama election struggle in 2008. Outsider artist Andrew Mass created an old McCain owl to compete with a sporty Obama bluebird. With both birds perched on a branch labelled Honesty and Truth, he invites you to choose between the aged wisdom of McCain the owl and the streamlined youthful vigour of Obama the bluebird.
Obama vs. McCain by Andrew Mass, an Outsider artist, Illinois, 2008. This coloured ink sketch juxtaposes the old owl McCain and the bluebird Obama, both perched on the limb of honesty and truth.
At least three regions of the world have employed the owl as their official emblem. In Canada the province of Manitoba adopted the great grey owl (Strix nebulosa) as its official bird emblem on 16 July 1987. A year-round resident of Manitoba, the great grey can be found throughout the mixed wood and coniferous forests of the province. Further to the west, the province of Alberta also has an owl as official emblem, but it is the great horned owl (Bubo virginianus). Its original coat of arms was a shield, the design of which was given to them in 1907 by King Edward VII, but in 1977 the province’s schoolchildren chose an additional emblem. They voted for the owl as the official bird and the legislature approved their choice on the grounds that, ‘a resourceful and resilient bird, the great horned owl exemplifies the best traits of Alberta’s people, both past and present.’ Today a Disneyfied version of the owl, called Wugie the Owl, has become a sports mascot in Edmonton, the capital of the province. Wugie stands for World University Games in Edmonton. In the east of Canada the National Assembly of the province of Quebec also chose an owl as their official bird. In their case it is the snowy owl (Nyctea scandiaca), an appropriate species to represent the icy wastes in the north of their region. As with Manitoba, their choice was made in 1987 when there was a major national movement to enhance the quality of the environment and save wild species.
Several sports teams have adopted the owl as their mascot. In the United States Philadelphia’s Temple University teams are called the Temple Owls. This name comes from Temple’s early days, when it was a night school. It is clear from the logo that the feature of the bird that they are emphasizing is not its wisdom but its lightning strike. The owl is shown in the act of swooping down with an angry frown on its face, its sharp beak open and its massive claws ready to grasp its prey. Unfortunately the artist who designed the logo did not know his owls very well as he has given their bird the feet of an eagle, with three toes pointing forward and one pointing back, instead of the typical owl arrangement of two forward and two back (zygodactylous).
Wugie the Owl, the sports mascot of Edmonton, Alberta, for the 1983 World University Games organized by fisu.
Also in America the world of professional ice hockey has employed the owl emblem. The Columbus Owls played at the Fairgrounds Coliseum in the Ohio State Fairgrounds at Columbus, Ohio until 1977, when they relocated to Dayton Ohio and became the Dayton Owls, keeping the same owl emblem. They then moved on to become the Grand Rapids Owls until 1980 when they finally collapsed as a team. Even then their owl emblem managed to survive; it was taken over by the Grand Rapids Junior Owls Hockey Club when the owners of the Junior Owls asked for and received permission to use the Owls’ name and logo. This is a case of an emblem becoming more successful than the clubs it represented.
Te
mple Owls, sports emblem of Temple University, Philadelphia.
In England the sports team with the owl as its official emblem is Sheffield Wednesday Football Club, established in 1867. The team became professional twenty years later, and its original nickname was the Blades, because Sheffield was a famous centre for the manufacture of knives. Then, at the start of the twentieth century, one of their players presented them with an owl mascot to honour their stadium at Owlerton and, from that point on, they became known as the Owls. (The original nickname of the Blades was taken over by their rivals, Sheffield United.) The first club badge with their new emblem showed a rather shy little owl sitting in a tree, but in modern times this has been replaced by a much more powerful looking bird, based apparently on the Egyptian owl hieroglyph, showing the body of the bird in profile with the head turned full face.
Owls football emblem of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club.
Another northern English football club briefly adopted the owl as its emblem. In 1964 Leeds United borrowed the owl from the city crest, which showed three owls, two wearing coronets. The city crest itself was based on the family crest of Sir John Saville, first alderman of Leeds. Although the football club owl emblem did not last long (perhaps overshadowed by the Sheffield owl) the city owl remains the proud emblem of Leeds to this day and outside the civic offices in the city centre is a magnificent golden owl statue. A third northern English football club also has an owl emblem. Like Leeds, Oldham Athletic took its owl from the local crest, but does not use ‘Owls’ as their nickname, in deference to the supporters of Sheffield Wednesday. The Oldham owl is a ‘canting’ reference, or heraldic pun, on the old pronunciation of the town’s name – Owldham.
Golden Owl: Leeds City owl statue.
Heraldic Owls: Leeds City Council Crest.
Slovenia, a country that won its independence only as recently as 1991, needed a new mascot to help in its bid for the 26th Winter Universiade that will take place in 2013. It chose the owl, or rather the highly stylized eyes and beak of an owl. The owl was selected for several reasons: because it represents knowledge and intelligence, because its flight is silent and elegant, because it is common in the Slovenian forests and even in the Slovenian towns, and, rather charmingly, because it is a nocturnal bird, suggesting that the Universiade is a sporting event that does not end at sunset but carries on into nights of socializing.
Nagano Snowlets: Japanese Olympic emblem.
There are other sporty owls right across the globe. In Podolsk on the outskirts of Moscow is an owl dressed as a defending ice hockey player, its ‘owlness’ all but obliterated. And there is even a sporting owl emblem in Japan. The Japanese Nagano Snowlets, a group of four baby owls, has been described by one critic as the worst mascot in Olympic history. One of the owlets is blue and purple, another green and orange, a third blue and green and the fourth purple and orange. All four have bright yellow eyes and, were it not for their spindly legs, would look better in the sumo ring than on the sports field.
So iconic is the basic shape of the owl that it can be exploited emblematically in many different ways. A thorough search, country by country, would probably unearth literally hundreds of owl emblems, not only at sports clubs but also at night clubs and supermarkets, shops and businesses. The thought-provoking, complex owl emblems of earlier centuries have been superseded by the simple-minded, crude images of modern commerce. As fascinating wild birds that deserve our respect and protection, owls may have seen their status raised today, but as emblems it has to be said that something has been lost.
6 Literary Owls
Owls have landed on many a page, from the earliest fables to the comic writings of Edward Lear, A. A. Milne and James Thurber. In one of its first appearances the literary owl features twice in Aesop’s fables, written in the sixth century BC. Aesop was a storytelling slave in ancient Greece who used animal tales to make moral statements. The first owl story, ‘The Owl and the Birds’, concerns the way in which the ordinary birds ignore the wise warnings of the owl. Later, when they are proved wrong and the owl is proved to have been right, they turn to it for pearls of wisdom, but the owl is now silent and ‘no longer gives them advice, but in solitude laments their past folly’.
In the second owl fable, ‘The Owl and the Grasshopper’, an owl who is trying to sleep during the day is disturbed by the grasshopper’s incessant chirping. Simple requests for peace and quiet are refused by the grasshopper, so the owl is driven to employing a trick, saying to the grasshopper: ‘Since I cannot sleep, on account of your song which, believe me, is as sweet as the lyre of Apollo, I shall indulge myself in drinking some nectar which Pallas lately gave me. If you do not dislike it, come to me and we will drink it together.’ The grasshopper found this offer hard to refuse, flew up and was promptly killed and eaten by the owl, who could now enjoy some silent slumber. The moral of this story is that flattery does not mean that you are admired.
To these two original owl fables many more were added over the centuries. One of the earliest comes from the Panchatantra, an Indian collection of animal fables in verse and prose sometimes called the Fables of Bidpai. The original text has long been lost but is believed to have been written as early as the third century AD. In the tale of the owl’s coronation all the birds gathered in the forest to complain about the fact that their king, the great bird-god Garuda, was no longer carrying out his duties towards them. He had become so obsessed with serving Visnu that the birds felt neglected and wished to elect a new king who would look after them properly. The owl, looking so wise and solemn, seemed the obvious choice, so the birds set about preparing for his coronation. They decorated his throne with leaves, flowers and animal skins, arranged for maidens to sing songs of praise and for festive music to play as the owl was led in procession to the place of his anointment.
As the honoured bird sat down on his throne, awaiting the ceremony, there was an interruption. A raucous crow, making a great noise, landed near the throne and demanded to know what was going on. The other birds, still uncertain about their choice of the owl as the new king, sought the crow’s advice. He was, after all, a very intelligent bird, and his opinion could not be ignored. When they told the crow about the imminent coronation of the owl, the great black bird laughed in disbelief. He dismissed the idea, saying that the owl was blind during the day, when he would be unable to rule. He also pointed out that since the owl could see at night when the other birds could not, they would be completely at his mercy during the hours of darkness. What was more, Garuda would hardly be pleased by this development. It was a thoroughly bad idea to have two kings at the same time and since Garuda had already made a name for himself and had great influence it would be much better to leave him to rule alone.
Listening to this, the birds lost their nerve and decided that perhaps, after all, they had made a bad mistake. So they silently dispersed, unnoticed by the owl, whose eyes were blinded by the strong daylight. After a long delay the owl sensed that something was amiss and demanded to know why the ceremony had stopped. He was told that everyone had gone because the crow had disrupted the proceedings. Only the crow remained and the owl turned on him and told him in no uncertain terms that, from now on, owls and crows would be sworn enemies and that this hatred would last forever. After this outburst, the owl went angrily away and the crow was left to ponder on what he had done. He had told the truth as he saw it but the result was that he had created an unwanted and unnecessary enemy for life. The owl was harmless and the crow had thoughtlessly stirred up anger for no good reason. He felt he had acted foolishly and regretted his impulsive behaviour. He may have been right but it had cost him dear to say so.
In this old tale, the symbolism of the owl and the crow is intriguing. The wise owl is vain, with limited powers, and the crow is sharp and clever but impulsive and lacking in any sort of diplomacy. Both end up losers. The moral seems to be that a man with limited abilities should accept his shortcomings and that a man with a clever brain must learn some so
cial skills.
In the seventeenth century the French poet La Fontaine gathered together many of these early fables and adapted them to his own style, adding some new fables of his own. In ‘The Owl and the Eagle’ he tells of a pact of friendship between these two great birds. Sworn enemies in the past, they now agree never to attack one another’s chicks. The only problem is: how will they identify them? The owl tells the eagle that in his case that is easy because his chicks are so beautiful, ‘Well formed and fine, with pretty sparkling eyes’. One day, later on, the eagle comes across the nest of the owl’s chicks and, taking a close look at them decides that they are ‘grim little monsters, fitted but to shock’ and therefore cannot be the chicks of his friend and promptly devours the lot. When the owl discovers what has happened he is outraged and demands the punishment of the eagle for breaking their pact. But it is pointed out to him that it is he who is to blame for exaggerating the beauty of his nestlings. The moral of this tale is that children always look beautiful to their parents but not necessarily to anyone else.
In the eighteenth century the English author John Gay took up the baton of fable-telling and in 1727 published Fifty-one Fables in Verse. In one of these two grumpy old owls are bewailing the fact that they are no longer treated with proper respect, as their forebears were, back in the days of ancient Athens:
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