女王的別樣軍隊

05-08

中文字：950，英文字：450；建議閱讀時間1.3分鐘

If you get a chance to visit London you

might go and see the tower of London and you may notice six ravens, these

ravens are part of the Queens army and a big part of English history. There

have always been 6 ravens in the tower of London and There is a superstition in

London that states 「If the Tower of London ravens are lost or fly away, the Crown will fall and Britain

with it」.

while most ravens only live for 10 – 15

years the ravens of the Tower of London live up to 40 years and have the best

care but there is also some laws the ravens must follow like most soldiers is

the ravens misbehave they will be punished and dismissed from there position,

here are some of the stories of the ravens.

Raven

George

This raven lost its position protecting the

crown when in 1986 was caught attacking television aerials and a decree was

issued after the incident 「on Saturday 13th September 1986, Raven

George, enlisted 1975 was posted to the Welsh Mountain zoo. Conduct

unsatisfactory, service therefore no longer required」

Raven Grog

This raven in 1981 decided after 21 years

of service he didn』t want to work in the tower of London anymore and started to

fly away and stay in a local pub called the Rose and Punchbowl.

James Crow and Edgar Sopper

After James Crow Died of old aged Edgar

noticed how much attention James got after he died, seeing this Edgar decided

that playing dead would get him a lot of attention. When he decided, it was

time for him to play dead he was so convincing that the raven master thought he

had really died, the raven master picked up Edgar, Edgar bite the

raven master and stated laughing as it flew back to its post.

Raven

Funeral

In 1990,

a Chaplin named Norman Hood died in his chamber on the tower grounds, the raven

assistance stated that the ravens took notice of the man』s death, and all

appeared on the tower green near the Chaplin and all called out and then became

silent so that the birds could pay their respect for the Norman Hood, ravens

are known to hold funerals for birds in their family so Norman Hood must have

been very important to the ravens.

Today

Currently there are 7 ravens at the tower

called Hardey, Thor, Odin, Gwyllum, Cedric, Hugine and Munin. All the ravens have their wings clipped this

stops them from flying away, it does not hurt them in any way to do this. Chris

Skaife is the current Ravenmaster and is the man who cares for all the ravens

in the Tower.

中文翻譯

如果你有機會拜訪倫敦，相必倫敦塔你一定不會錯過，不知你是否注意到了，它裡面養了6隻渡鴉。這6隻渡鴉隸屬於女王的軍隊，同時它們也是英國歷史的重要組成部分。在倫敦塔周圍渡鴉的數量很久以來都是6,因為在倫敦有這樣一個迷信：如果這6隻渡鴉被弄丟或飛走，王室與英國就會沒落。

超過60個國家和愛爾蘭的地名包含「渡鴉」，在莎士比亞的作品裡，渡鴉出現的頻率更是比其他鳥類多得多，可見渡鴉在英國人心目中的地位。

大多數渡鴉都能活10-15年，在倫敦塔里的烏鴉總計維持了40年，它們得到了最好的照料，當然它們也得像大多數士兵一樣服從某些法律規範。如果它們行為不當，也將面臨懲罰和解僱，接下來就來說幾則關於這些渡鴉的故事吧。

烏鴉——George

1986年，這隻渡鴉因保護王室成員失職而丟了飯碗，當時它竟然在攻擊電視天線。當年的9月13號在發生該項事件後，一項法令隨即發布：George烏鴉1975年入伍，因行為表現不佳，故解除服役，重新回到威爾士山動物園。

烏鴉——Grog

1981年這隻服役了21年的渡鴉，再也不想呆在倫敦塔了，所以毅然決然地飛走了，最終在一家名為「玫瑰與酒碗」的酒吧駐足。

烏鴉——James Crow 與Edgar Sopper

當James Crow因為年紀大而死後，Edgar發現James Crow的死竟能引起這麼大的關注，於是Edgar開始著手玩假死來博取關注，當它開始實施這一計劃時，自以為演技一流能夠騙過它的主人。但誰知Edgar的主人竟將它撿起，於是它在啄了主人，掙脫後，又只能悻悻地回到了自己原來的位置。

渡鴉的葬禮

1990年，一名卓別林派的喜劇演員Norman Hood死在了塔內的房間里。據渡鴉助理反饋，當時渡鴉留意到了Norman Hood的死，所有的烏鴉都齊聚在Norman Hood周圍，大聲呼叫，隨後又全部沉默以此來表達對於死者的敬意。在鳥類中，渡鴉是以為家族成員舉行葬禮而聞名的，所以從這次渡鴉的行為來看，Norman Hood一定對於它們一定非常重要。

如今

目前有7隻渡鴉在倫敦塔內，它們分別是Hardey, Thor,

Odin, Gwyllum, Cedric, Hugine 和 Munin，所有的渡鴉都對它們的翅膀進行了修剪，以防它們的逃跑。當然這種方法肯定能夠保證不會傷害到它們，Chris Skaife是目前這群渡鴉的主人，負責照料並看管它們。要說這幾隻渡鴉待遇還真不是一般的好，在為它們建造房屋時，設計師還徵詢了來自烏鴉馴養師、倫敦塔委員會、動物管理協會專家以及倫敦動物園鳥類館長的意見，並詳細了解了烏鴉的名字，以及它們不同的習慣和性格，綜合總總之後。。。。

請問，你買房裝修時，可得到這些個資源，哈哈，不說了，討論下個話題。