LL-L "Folklore" 2004.10.13 (07) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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From: Global Moose Translations <globalmoose at t-online.de>
Subject: LL-L "Folklore" 2004.10.13 (02) [E]

Ron wrote:
> Her eery wailing at the imminent death of someone in the vicitinity has an
> equivalent in Northern German folklore: the owl, especially the horned
owl.
> It has the same job.  This may seem less scary to you now, but I remember
> that as a youngster staying with my paternal grandmother at her house deep
> in the woods I was plenty scared when I heard owl calls at night,
especially
> being aware very young of the fact that people can suddenly die.

Well, there is one important difference: the banshee "runs inthe family", i.
e. she only appears to announce the death of a member of a certain family.
So it's one banshee per clan or somehting like that.

I have learned as a child that the "Totenvogel", the "bird of death" in the
German Lowlands, is the tawny owl (Waldkauz, Strix aluco). Its call -
kuwitt, kuwitt - sounds like Lower Saxon "kumm mit, kumm mit" (come with me,
come with me). Also, it is heard most often in the wee hours of the night,
and that happens to be the time when people often die after a long
sickness - and it also "explains" those who die in their sleep.

Oddly enough, when my stepfather died three years ago, we actually did hear
a tawny owl call from the garden that night - we had never heard one there
before, although the house was very close to the woods.

Gabriele Kahn

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Science

Thanks a lot for the clarifications, Gabriele.

Marlou Lessing (with a really nice website, "Platt partu"
http://www.marless.de/) has a page dedicated to the owl:
http://www.marless.de/natur/sunn01_04.htm .  The text is in Lowlands Saxon
(Low German).

Names of _Strix aluco_:

Afrikaans: bosuil ("forest owl")
Basque: basontza
Catalan: gamarús
Chinese: (灰)林鴞, (灰)林号鸟
Croatian: šumska sova
Czech: puštík obecný
Danish: natugle ("night owl")
Dutch: bosuil ("forest owl")
English: tawny owl, brown owl, billy hooter, hill hooter,
     Jinny hooter, beech owl, brown ivey owl, hollering
     owl, tawny hooting owl
Estonian: kodukakk
Faeroese: músagjóð
Finnish: lehtopöllö
French: chouette hulotte
Gaelic, Scottish: cailleach-oidhche ("old woman of the
     night"), comhachag-dhonn
German: Waldkauz
Greek: χουχουριστής
Hungarian: macskabagoly
Italian: allocco
Japanese: モリフクロウ
Korean: 황갈색 올빼미
Latvian: meža pūce
Lithuanian: naminė pelėda, pūcė
Lowlands Saxon: kat-uul (Kattuul "cat owl"), nacht-uul
     (Nachtuul "night owl"), doden-vagel (Dodenvagel
     "bird of the dead," "death bird")
Norwegian: kattugle ("cat owl")
Polish: puszczyk
Portuguese: coruja-do-mato
Romanian: huhurez de padure
Russian: неясыть серая
Scots: ferny hoolet, broon hoolert,
Spanish: cárabo (común)
Swedish: kattuggla
Turkish: alaca baykuş
Slovak: sova lesná
Slovenian: lesna sova
Ukrainian: сова сіра
Welsh: aderyn corph, aderyn-y-cyrph, dylluan felynddu,
     dylluan fig, dylluan frech, dylluan rudd, dylluan y coed,
     tylluan frech
Vietnamese: hù nivicon

http://www.birdguides.com/html/vidlib/species/Strix%5Faluco.htm
http://www.birds-of-denmark.dk/natugle-strix_aluco.htm

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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