(no subject)

[minervasolo]

Say Anything- John Cusack is a God, and you have
good taste


Which cheesy 80s movie are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

I've never even heard of that film.


I've started writing a fic, based on some of the magpie lore I know. Unfortunately, this seems to be, well, local lore, because so far everything i've found online is different. Often different from each other, too.

So far we have:

One for sorrow.
Two for joy.
Three for a girl.
Four for a boy.
Five for silver.
Six for gold.
Seven for a secret never to be told.
Eight's a wish.
Nine's a kiss.
Ten is a bird you must not miss,
Magpie

One for sorrow, two for mirth,
Three for a wedding, four for a birth,
Five for silver, six for gold,
Seven for a secret not to be told.
Eight for heaven, nine for hell,
And ten for the devil's own sel'.

One for sorrow,
two for mirth,
three for a wedding,
four for birth,
five for rich,
six for poor,
Seven for a witch,
I can tell you no more

One's mirth, two's grief,
Three's a wedding, four's death,
Five's heaven, six is hell,
Sen's the devil's ain sel'.
(it's irish - maybe it rhymes better if you have an Irish accent?)

One's sorrow, two's mirth,
Three's a wedding, four's a birth,
Five's a christening, six a dearth,
Seven's heaven, eight is hell,
And nine's the devil his ane sel'.

And for crows, who seem to also get some rather similar rhymes:

One for sorrow,
two for joy,
three for a girl,
for for a boy,
five for silver,
six for gold,
seven for a secret,
never to be told,
eight for a wish,
nine for a kiss,
ten for a time
of joyous bliss.

One crow sorrow,
Two crows mirth,
three, a wedding,
four, a birth,
five brings silver,
six takes wealth,
seven crows a secret,
More I can nae tell.

One for sadness, two for mirth;
Three for marriage, four for birth;
Five for laughing, six for crying:
Seven for sickness, eight for dying;
Nine for silver, ten for gold;
Eleven a secret that will never be told.

We also have things to do should you meet a lone magpie:
- In Scotland and Northern Ireland you salute him
- In some parts of England you wave to him
- A Yorkshire superstition has it that the magpie is associated with witchcraft and therefore an ill omen - you make the sign of a cross or take off your hat in respect to ward off any evil.
- In Korea, a popular folk belief has it that the magpie is a bird of inspirational instinct, which can foretell people that they will have visitors or house guests in the near future.
- in parts of Yorkshire, you should imitate the lone magpie's missing partner - loudly.
- in Liconshire, you should lay to straws across each other on the ground
- in Lancashire they're unlucky in pairs, not on their own
- in devonshire, you have tp spit over your right shoulder three times and say: Clean birds by sevens,/Unclean by twos;/The dove in the heavens/Is the one I choose.

Anyway, my original problem springs from the fact that the version i know only goes up to seven, because more than seven magpies in a group means the world is ending. And I can't find anything on hte web with the same superstition. And apparently I didn't get it from my mother... it's something I associate with my grandmother, so maybe a London superstition? this is starting to bug me. Half the pages I get are about some football club. Presumably a very important famous one, judging by the frequency with which it comes up.

Actually, i remember reading a book about a group of girls who form a magpie club, and the rhyme starts coming true, and I think they might have had the 8 = 'end of the world' superstition. Seriously though, where did I get this bit of folklore from? No one else has heard it!

Comments

[stefichan.livejournal.com]

I've actually heard the magpie thingie before. It was even in a Weiss fic before. Brad had gone crazy after going blind or something in it, and he started reciting the poem. In it, he mentioned something about the end of the world, too. I wish I could remember more about it though... >_

[minervasolo.livejournal.com]

that's one of Aoe and Shoori's fics (okay, it's one authoress or the other, but I can never remember which writes which series). The Au series, about what would have hapened in Schwarz has succeeded. It's actually where the original inspiration for my fic came from, since I ended up discussing with Anria whether it was crows or magpies.
Anyway, you can find it at bleeding hearts (http://www.trowaluvsduo.net/weissweb/bleedinghearts.htm). They both write brilliant WK fics.