Sparrows as psychopomps

[dreadfulpennies]

I'm working on a novella where the main characters are psychopomps/grim reapers/death deities. I'm still in the speedy first-draft and gave the main character sparrow wings in passing. It was a detail jotted down for my own benefit and wasn't even mentioned until a minor character begins talking at length about death and its symbolism. Like the

Comments

[tabbyclaw]

It may have something to do with Matthew 10:29: "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father." (KJV)

[infinitemonkeys]

I remembered this too -- though like you I couldn't remember from where I did -- and ended up googling 'sparrow' and 'Beowulf' to come up with this:

http://www.lightspill.com/schola/nando/beowulf_notes.html

The Venerable Bede, apparently

[teithiwr]

Bede, yes. To me, at least, it's one of the quintessential images in Anglo-Saxon literature.

[amethyst_drop]

It's been awhile since I've read them, but birds often show up as figures in the Grimms Fairy Tales...Usually they're doves or ravens or the like, but there are a couple hundred stories to consider, after all. I might therefore suggest looking at folklore/fairy tales in general, as well as mythology. Even if you do not find information relating specifically to death/leading to the land of the dead, I think you'll find they show up in journey-like situations.

These sort of minutiae are what academia was made for. If you have access to an article database like JSTOR, use it! :)

[mordant]

I am not suprised that you are getting a lot of Dark Half references.. if you are set on the sparrow idea, reading the book might be insightful (I have).

In fact the first thing I thought of when I saw 'sparrow' and 'psychopomp' are "omg stephen king has done this."

Did you check these links out?
http://www.philipcoppens.com/birdlanguage.html
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Psychopomp
http://www.psychopomps.org/psychopomp-guide.html

[aello_lime]

In "Flights of Fancy; Birds in myth, legend, and superstition" it says that in Kent it was believed if a sparrow flew in the window someone in the house would soon die. And if one was caught it had to be killed immediately or the catcher would soon die.

[felldeedsawake]

I see sites mentioning sparrows, but giving no cultural origins of their use - other than, of course, in Stephen King.

In H.P. Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror, whippoorwills are used.

Then, too, the natives are mortally afraid of the numerous whippoorwills which grow vocal on warm night. It is vowed that the birds are psychopomps lying in wait for the souls of the dying, and that they time their eerie cries in unison with the sufferer's struggling breath. If they can catch the fleeing soul when it leaves the body, they instantly flutter away chittering in daemoniac laughter; but if they fail, they subside gradually into a disappointed silence.