The ravens in the Tower of London (an English legend)

The legend of the ravens in the Tower of London comes from the Medieval times, when a king called Bran (in Welsh, bran means raven) was killed in a battle and his head was buried in the place where the Tower of London stands now. From that day, the ravens are important and necessary occupants of the Tower.
The legend says that if the ravens leave the Tower of London, the great White Tower will fall and a terrible disaster will befall England.
So, at least six ravens live at the Tower and one of the guards (called Yeomen Warders or Beefeaters) has the job of “Ravenmaster”and he takes care of their feeding and well beeing.
In a few weeks the birds only respond to the Ravenmaster.
To prevent the ravens from fliying away one of their wings is clipped. This doesn´t hurt the birds but unbalances their flight and so they can´t go too far from the Tower.
The British government pays the Raven´s lodgings and feeding.
Nowadays there are a total of seven ravens in the Tower and each one has got its own name. To distinguish them, they wear a band or ring around the leg with different colours:
-Pearl (female, gold ring, 2011)
-Porsha (female, light blue ring, 2009)
-Rocky (male, brown ring, 2009)
-Hugine (female, red ring, 2008)
-Erin (female, white ring, 2006)
-Merlin (female, pink ring, 2005)
-Munin (female, dark green ring, 1995)
The youngest one is Pearl (7 months old) and the oldest one is Munin (17 years old).

Published by Gloria Magaña