Hunting the Wren

The Wren  is considered a "most sacred bird" and called the 'King of the Birds'  and Drui-en or Druid bird in Irish Gaelic. In Welsh the word Dryw means both druid and wren In Celtic lore she symbolised the year that was past. She is known to sing throughout winter, and is thus a symbol of hope and rebirth. It was said that capturing the bird alive would herald in a new and prosperous year. As the king of the birds the wren occupied a prominent position in the druidic pagan religion. Sailors and fishermen believed that those who possessed a wren feather would never be shipwrecked.

A Manx folk-tale recounts how it is the wren became king. All of the birds had gathered together to decide, once and for all, who would be first among them.  In turn, each bird came forward to state what gifts they had which set them above all of the rest.  Although the wren had proven her cleverness to the approval of the gathering, the eagle suggested that the bird who could fly the highest should be the one to rule over them all. The gathered birds agreed, and the eagle flew up as high as he could, far surpassing all of the rest. He called out to the assembly, “’I am King of the Birds, King of the Birds!” – but he didn’t realize that the wren had hidden herself among his feathers, and as he made his proclamation, she jumped up to the top of his head and cried out, “’Not so, not so, I’m above him, I’m above him!” And thus, through her cleverness, the wren became king of the birds.

Another story tells us that St Stephen was hiding in a bush from his enemies, only for his hiding to be revealed by the chattering of a wren. Another maintains that in the 700s during the Viking troubles, when Irish warriors crept up on the Danes to attack, a little wren beat out a warning by picking crumbs from the drum held by a sleeping Viking. And lastly, there was a fairy woman called Cliona was in the habit of luring local men to a watery grave. She had the power to turn herself into, you’ve guessed it, a wren.

The feast of St. Stephen, who was the first Christian martyr, is celebrated on December 26th. Connecting the Wren Boys ritual (Lá an Dreoilín) as the day when the traitor wren by simply chirping away betrayed St. Stephen is a good example of how Ireland’s pagan traditions were merged with Christianity.

The Wren.and what it symbolised therefore became a target by Christian believers as part of their purge of 'pagan' traditions. During Yule, the bird was hunted and killed in it's thousands until finally being banned in 1830. The wren’s connection with royalty is important when considering some of the theories surrounding the purpose of the Wren Hunt. In his classic work, The Golden Bough, Frazer talks about the hunting of the wren along with several examples of similar ritual behavior from other cultures around the world. He writes:

The worshipful animal is killed with special solemnity once a year; and before or immediately after death he is promenaded from door to door, that each of his worshipers may receive a portion of the divine virtues that are supposed to emanate from the dead or dying god. Religious processings of this sort must have had a great place in the ritual of European peoples in prehistoric times, if we may judge from the numerous traces of them which have survived in folk custom.

It may be that the wren stood as proxy for an ancient tradition where the annual king would be sacrificed at year’s end to ensure the abundance of the crops and animals in the year to come.

In Wales, the custom of ‘Hunting the Wren’ usually took place between the 6th and 12th of January. It all sounded  rather cruel, where basically the tiny bird is captured, killed and tied to a pole. Local musicians and dancers would then dress in garish disguises and go house to house collecting money, food and drink for a party. Woe betide the house that did not donate to the cause – the wren could be buried outside their door which would bring 12 months of bad luck!

In Pembrokeshire, it was called ‘Twelfth-tide’ and the wren's cage was in the form of a wooden cage adorned with ribbons.

What is interesting about the wren hunt is that it is an example of a ritual which countermands the usual order of things. Wrens, if not considered a sacred bird, from medieval times onward were at the very least an honored and protected species. It was considered bad luck to harm a wren or disturb its nest, and this notion is attested to in folk sayings such as:

Y neb a dorro nyth y dryw

Ni chaiff iechayd yn ei fyw

Whoever robs the wren’s nest shall

Never have wealth in his life

This protected status may further bolster the idea of the wren as a sacrifice, and the exchange of its life during the dark time of the year was a powerful offering indeed to whatever forces decided how lucky or abundant the new year would be. In  these colder nights. the Wren. king of birds gets bolder more visible as  the undergrowth where it likes to forage loses it's foliage Listen out for it's  melodic song. and celebrate it's beauty.Wherever they may be, allow them to spread cheer and hope.

 

"He who shall hurt the little wren

  Shall never be belov'd by men." - William Blake Auguries of Innocence