#68: Black Birds of the Tower
What\u2019s spookier than the Tower of London, home to the ghosts of queens and the rest of Henry the VIII\u2019s enemies? How about the half-dozen black ravens that inhabit it\u2014without which, as legend has it, the Tower will crumble and the kingdom will fall? Since there haven\u2019t been dead bodies littering the Tower Green for centuries, someone has to keep the ravens alive\u2014and that person is the Ravenmaster, Christopher Skaife. As a Yeoman Warder, Skaife is one of the custodians of the Tower\u2019s rich history and traditions, and he joins us to offer a bird\u2019s-eye view of his life among the ravens.
Go beyond the episode:
- Christopher Skaife\u2019s The Ravenmaster
- Read an excerpt about the birds\u2019 daily routine
- Follow Merlina the raven (with help from the Ravenmaster) on Twitter
- For more scary tales, read ex-Yeoman Warder Geoffrey Abott\u2019s book, Ghosts of the Tower of London
- For photographs that Skaife says \u201ccome very close to capturing the true majesty and mystery of the birds,\u201d see Masahisa Fukase\u2019s Ravens series
- Behold, the funerals of crows
- For one of the \u201cbest books in the world on bird behavior,\u201d according to Skaife, see Nathan Emery\u2019s Bird Brain, and for dozens more recommended books on the Tower and its inhabitants, see the \u201cSuggested Reading\u201d section at the back of The Ravenmaster
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Music featured from Master Toad (\u201cDreadful Mansion\u201d) courtesy of the Free Music Archive. Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman.
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