NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / World

Raven queen vanishes, and Britain fears prophecy of doom will come true

By Alan Cowell
New York Times·
15 Jan, 2021 02:18 AM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

A potent blend of myth, invention and commercialisation has elevated the resident colony of ravens at the Tower of London to celebrity status. Photo / Pete Nuij, Unsplash

A potent blend of myth, invention and commercialisation has elevated the resident colony of ravens at the Tower of London to celebrity status. Photo / Pete Nuij, Unsplash

They flap and lollop and squawk and scavenge. They hold the future of the realm, some say, in their fearsome beaks.

And now one of them — their queen, Merlina — has been reclassified to MIA from AWOL, heralding the feared redemption of a purported prophecy dating from the time of King Charles II in the 17th century: when the ravens leave the Tower of London, the building will crumble and the kingdom with it.

That at least is the story so far, a blend of myth, invention and hard-billed commercialism that has elevated the resident colony of ravens at London's famed prison and palace on the north bank of the River Thames to a rare status: clipped-wing guardians of the national destiny, tourist-dollar magnets.

Most people, including the tower's scarlet-clad wardens known as Beefeaters, dismiss the prophecy wryly as a fiction invented in Victorian Britain in the 19th century.

The Tower of London closed to visitors on December 16, as the latest wave of coronavirus cases gathered strength. Photo / Matthias Kabel, Wikipedia
The Tower of London closed to visitors on December 16, as the latest wave of coronavirus cases gathered strength. Photo / Matthias Kabel, Wikipedia
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

But, given the other narratives confronting the land — Covid-19 at its most deadly since the pandemic began to uncurl from faraway China a year ago; the traumas and tribulations of Brexit; the consequent fraying of the bonds that unite the United Kingdom — could it not be said that the portend is already in the process of realisation?

The flutterings of concern date from December, when Christopher Skaife, the tower's ravenmaster, noticed that Merlina was absent without leave from the rest of the group — Jubilee, Harris, Gripp, Rocky, Erin and Poppy. Initially, he said, he was not too worried because she was a "free-spirited raven that has been known to leave the tower precincts on many occasions".

"But I'm her buddy, and so she normally comes back to us, but this time she didn't, so I do fear that she is not with us any more," he told the BBC.

In a statement yesterday, the custodians of the Tower of London confirmed his suspicions. Merlina's "continued absence indicates to us that she may have sadly passed away", tower authorities said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

We have some really unhappy news to share. Our much-loved raven Merlina has not been seen at the Tower for several weeks, and her continued absence indicates to us that she may have sadly passed away. (1/4) pic.twitter.com/ccwCIBfdlT

— The Tower of London (@TowerOfLondon) January 13, 2021

For prophecy-watchers, there was a twist. In order to fulfill the omen, the number of ravens must fall below six — the minimum dictated by royal decree. Cannily, Skaife had kept an extra bird, a familiar concept in a broader prescription for regal continuity that enjoins couples to create "an heir and a spare" when they extend the royal family with the creation of offspring.

"We now have seven ravens here at the tower, one more than the required six, so we don't have any immediate plans to fill Merlina's vacancy," tower authorities said. Nonetheless, the errant queen "will be greatly missed by her fellow ravens, the ravenmaster, and all of us in the tower community".

Discover more

Travel

Tower of London in mourning as Queen raven dies

13 Jan 09:29 PM
World

World leaders who wooed Trump face tricky reset

14 Jan 04:00 PM
World

'At 6pm, life stops': Europe embraces curfews in Covid fight

14 Jan 10:07 PM
World

UK bans travellers from South America, Portugal amid new Covid strain fears

15 Jan 02:45 AM

The entwinement of the ravens' destinies with the nation's might have been foreseen in August, when worries related to the coronavirus pandemic stripped the Tower of London of some of its legions of visitors.

The ravens — sometimes collectively called an "unkindness" — became bored and restless without the detritus of human contact that kept them in snacks in addition to a regular diet that includes mice, chicks, meats and biscuits soaked in animal blood. They were also said to pine for the stimulation of a human audience for their party tricks that include mimicry.

One of the ravens, Thor, predating Merlina's arrival in 2007, was said to have greeted visiting President Vladimir Putin of Russia by bidding him good morning. Putin was "rather taken aback", The Guardian reported.

A Beefeater guards the tower. Photo / Aldo De La Paz, Unsplash
A Beefeater guards the tower. Photo / Aldo De La Paz, Unsplash

Putin would not have been the first person to have been taken aback — or perhaps to have seen parallels close to Russia's own history — at the tower, known for a history of incarceration dating from the 12th century, often as a prelude to beheading and other forms of execution.

Its many doomed alumni included two wives of Henry VIII; the so-called princes in the tower who disappeared there in the 15th century and were said to have been murdered by their uncle, King Richard III; and fugitive Nazi Rudolf Hess in 1941.

Many of the estimated 3 million annual visitors (pre-pandemic), moreover, flocked there not just to dip into bloody history but also to marvel at the heavily guarded Crown Jewels.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The Tower of London closed to visitors on December 16, as the latest wave of coronavirus cases gathered strength. But even before then, and before Merlina's disappearance, the effect of falling visitor numbers had worried custodians like Skaife.

"The tower is only the tower when the people are there," he told The Sun newspaper last year. "The ravens have always been so important to the tower because they've been surrounded by myths and legends. We really need people to come back to help the ravens."


Written by: Alan Cowell
© 2021 THE NEW YORK TIMES

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from World

World

'Gossipy' leaks: Lucy Letby lawyer slams police over charges

02 Jul 11:43 PM
World

Colombia seizes drone narco-submarine with Starlink tech

02 Jul 11:35 PM
World

Diddy cleared of sex trafficking in trial with explosive testimonies

02 Jul 11:31 PM

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from World

'Gossipy' leaks: Lucy Letby lawyer slams police over charges

'Gossipy' leaks: Lucy Letby lawyer slams police over charges

02 Jul 11:43 PM

Police didn't inform the nurse of potential charges directly.

Colombia seizes drone narco-submarine with Starlink tech

Colombia seizes drone narco-submarine with Starlink tech

02 Jul 11:35 PM
Diddy cleared of sex trafficking in trial with explosive testimonies

Diddy cleared of sex trafficking in trial with explosive testimonies

02 Jul 11:31 PM
Heatwave closes Eiffel Tower’s top floor and bakes Wimbledon

Heatwave closes Eiffel Tower’s top floor and bakes Wimbledon

02 Jul 11:21 PM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP