Birds with Human Souls: A Guide to Bird Symbolism.

Beryl Rowland.

Editore: Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, . First Edition., 1978

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Oblong quarto, blue cloth (hardcover), illustration to upper cover, gilt lettering, xvii, 213 pp. Fine in a Very Good dust jacket with edgewear. From dust jacket: The symbolic values of some birds are self-explanatory: the watchful old owl in the oak tree looks wise, the thieving magpie is an inveterate pilferer, and the black raven with its raucous cry must be a bird of ill omen. Yet when we learn that the parrot is an alcoholic, that the goldfinch is the favorite bird of the Christ child in Italian paintings, and that the ostrich eats iron nails or horseshoes, we need an explanation that our knowledge of real birds cannot give us. Beryl Rowland's book, by describing the origins and meanings of bird symbols, provides that explanation. Documented with references from earliest times, it shows how the bird has captivated the human imagination and has been viewed in astonishingly similar ways by different races the world over. Most persistent is the idea of the supernatural power of the bird. As the symbol of the soul, the bird is also the symbol of all good things -- love, fertility, protection from disease, divine knowledge of the Supreme Being himself -- and as such it appears widely in religious thought, folklore, and art. The intensity of the symbol is increased by the common idea that the bird represents the lost, most longed-for object -- the mother's breast, freedom, sexual accomplishment, the voice of the loved one, poetic inspiration, union with the divine. In her earlier book, Animals with Human Faces, Professor Rowland showed that animals usually symbolized the baser traits of humanity. Birds, she concludes here, are not like the beats. Specific birds may be symbols of evil or misfortune, but collectively "they give their wings to angels, and they sing like angels. Their harmony reflects the harmony of heaven itself. Birds are never far from Paradise. When they are not singing services at its very gates, they are caroling blithely in Nature's honor in an earthly garden of delight or luring mortals into fairyland by their magic notes." Art, Symbolism, Ornithology, Birds, Sociology, Psychology TSLIC.

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• Titolo: Birds with Human Souls: A Guide to Bird Symbolism.
• Editore: Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, . First Edition.
• Data di pubblicazione: 1978
• Rilegatura: Rilegato
• Condizione della sovraccoperta: sovraccoperta