The raven sits at the centre of British mythology, and in the Mabinogi it sits at the centre of one of the strangest stories ever told: the burial of the head of Bran the Blessed, son of Llŷr.
The Second Branch of the Mabinogi tells how Bendigeidfran (Bran the Blessed), giant-king of the Island of the Mighty, leads his army across the Irish Sea to rescue his sister Branwen from a disastrous marriage. The campaign succeeds and ends in catastrophe in equal measure: of all the host that crossed, only seven men return — and Bran himself, mortally wounded by a poisoned spear, will not be coming home alive.
His final command is one of the eeriest in medieval literature. He instructs his seven survivors to cut off his head and carry it back to Britain. They are to feast with the head, he says, in the hall at Harlech for seven years and at Gwales for eighty more, and the head will speak to them and keep their company as if he were still alive. After that, they must take it to the Gwynfryn — the White Hill in London — and bury it there, facing France. As long as the head remains buried beneath that hill, no invasion will come from across the sea. Britain will stand.
The seven follow his instructions exactly. The head sings. Time stops. When at last they take it to London and bury it on the White Hill, the protective magic settles over the kingdom. It is, in the Welsh telling, the foundation charm of Britain itself.
Now stand on Tower Hill in London today. The 'White Hill' is the rise on which William the Conqueror later built the White Tower — the heart of what we now call the Tower of London. And at the Tower, six ravens are kept by a Yeoman Warder known as the Ravenmaster, fed daily by royal warrant, their flight feathers gently trimmed so they will not leave. The official explanation, repeated to every visitor, is the prophecy: 'If the ravens leave the Tower, the kingdom will fall.'
Historians can argue about how old the Tower raven tradition really is — the documented practice may only go back to the Victorians, perhaps to Charles II — but the idea is far older. It is Bran's head buried under that exact hill. It is the Welsh word brân meaning 'raven'. It is a thousand-year-old Brythonic protection-spell quietly outsourced to six birds and a man with a bucket.
The raven of the Mabinogi is not just a clever bird. It is the Island of the Mighty's oldest insurance policy — the soul of a Welsh giant-king buried under the heart of London, refusing to be forgotten. Wear the raven and you wear that long memory: while the birds stay, Britain stands.