Crow and raven women in fiction

A common theme keeps popping up in my stories—crow or raven women. I’m not sure why this is happening, but my fascination with these beings probably has something to do with my love of Celtic myths. The Irish hero Cuchulain had many encounters with the Irish battle goddess, Morrigan. She is his nemesis. Ravens and crows are prevalent in Celtic myths. They are associated with battlefields and death, prophecy and the Otherworld. In some versions of the King Arthur myth, upon his death, Arthur turns into a raven. Crows and ravens play an important part in the lives of the ancient Celts.

Celtic goddesses embodied war and fertility and had a fierceness and danger that other goddesses lacked. Even the serene Brigit had her hand in warfare—she inspired blacksmiths that created farm tools as well as weapons. The aspects of the Celtic goddesses reflect what we know about Celtic women. Roman writers called them more fearsome than even their men.

Since I write a lot of Celtic-themed stories with warriors and otherworldly creatures, the crow and raven women that appear in my tales are important to the story. Though different incarnations of the battle goddess, my crow and raven women have some similarities. They are neither good nor evil, but they are unpredictable and make trouble for my hero and heroine. They can change their shape into a crow or raven or have feathered wings.

I am doing something a little different in a story I am working on with one of my crow women. She is not a Fae or goddess, but was human until dark magic transformed her. This is also the first time one of my crow or raven women is the heroine. And the story is set in ancient Greece, not one of my usual Celtic settings. I draw on Greek mythology for this tale, which also has its share of crow and raven myths.

Authors, do you have a favorite theme that appears in most of your stories? Readers, do you have a favorite theme in the books you read?

Kelley Heckart, Historical fantasy romance author

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A Greek vampire, Celtic kings, vengeful goddesses, an ancient faery curse…

All three books of my Dark Goddess trilogy are available in Print and Ebook. Set in dark age Scotland, I mixed history with a Samhain/Beltaine myth that revolves around an Irish clan and the goddesses Brigit and Cailleach.

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