On the day of summer’s eve, many a year ago there was born a Crow. She was born to the shining sunlight pouring down through the leafy trees and the smell of the beautiful Dianthus flowers. One day while resting in her nest up in the tree and her parents out to catch food for the youngling, a huge gust of wind blew the nest off the branch, and the Crow fell down landing on the ground. In a panic, the Crow began to cry for her parents, but they did not come.
Not far off from the Crow, in the woods, was a road and on it a carriage carrying a mother, a father, and a young girl by the name of Lenore. The girl heard the Crow’s crying and spotted the poor bird on the ground, still in its nest, and begged her parents to stop so that she may see if she could help it, and so they did. Lenore went to the bird and bent down to look at it. She saw the pain and fear in the young Crow’s eyes and could not bear to think of what might happen to it. Lenore asked her mother and father if she could take it with her as a pet, and being the loving parents that they were, they allowed their daughter to take the Crow.
Lenore and the Crow became inseparable. The young girl would feed the Crow, play with her, and was there for the first day the bird was able to fly. As the years went on their relationship grew stronger and stronger, but soon the young Lenore became a woman. Lenore began spending her days and nights with one of the men in her town, a scholar, and eventually they fell madly in love with each other leading them to become betrothed.
Lenore was so busy with her new husband that she could not spend as much time with the Crow. The bird became very lonely and for days would perch on a branch near the house of Lenore and cry from the time she woke up till the time she went to sleep. One day, during her routine weeping, a passing by Raven heard her crying song, and felt deep remorse for the bird. He followed her somber tune until he finally found his way to the sorrowful Crow. The Raven comforted Lenore’s pet bird, and made her very happy. Soon, just as her owner had, the Crow fell in love with the Raven, and he with her, and they devoted their lives to be with one another.
Lenore saw that her pet bird had a lover, and she approved of this new Raven. The Raven became very happy with his new life, as he was deeply in love with the bird that was once so sad, and now so joyful. He also saw the beauty in the woman named Lenore and he enjoyed perching in the tree with his new lover and watching the woman tend her garden, go on walks, and read outside. She would oftentimes feed the two lovebirds.
The Crow loved the woman Lenore so much that she wanted to get her a gift. In town there was a traveling salesman who had set up his carriage in town with many beautiful pieces of jewelry. Since Lenore and her new husband were young, they did not have the money for such magnificent objects. The Crow decided she would take one of the jewelries whenever the salesman had his back turned, and that is what she did. She picked out the most resplendent piece out of them all: a silver necklace with a cross. She brought the necklace back to the house of Lenore, and the next time she saw her owner she dropped it into her hands. Lenore’s eyes grew so big whenever she observed the adornment and she declared it the most gorgeous necklace she had ever seen and vowed to wear it everyday. Lenore loved her birds with all of her heart.
However, the lover of Lenore, the Scholar, did not like the birds. He thought Lenore spent too much time with the birds. The Raven would see the Scholar yell at his wife “You do not need to spend time with these birds Lenore! You will spend no more time with them! Nevermore! Nevermore! Nevermore!”
The Raven loved the beautiful language of the humans. He could understand their words, yet as much as he tried, he could not produce a syllable of their dialect.The Raven hoped that one day he would be able to articulate such seductive sounds. He did not like it whenever the Scholar spoke though since he was always so angry at the birds, wishing them away so he could have his Lenore to himself. Soon, the Scholar’s wish came true.
