Night raven

Sources do not provide a single unifying origin myth. In Swedish material night ravens are explicitly linked to the funerary status of the dead — described as the ghosts of ungodly deceased (for example suicides, unbaptized children, those buried in unholy ground) who appear at night in feathered hamr (bird-shape). Other regional variants are treated as monstrous nocturnal birds or bogey figures; the motif overlaps older Germanic lexical terms for nocturnal birds (Old Norse nátthrafn, Old Swedish natrafn), but the materials note this as an alternative, historically attested sense rather than a definitive origin.

Accounts vary by region. Many descriptions portray a raven-shaped nocturnal bird, sometimes of great size. Swedish/Nordic variants include skeletal or undead forms—revenants flying in bird-shaped hamr—and specific motifs such as eyeless sockets or holes in the wings. Northern German descriptions may emphasize a large, extremely fast bird with wings described as if made of iron (an "iron bird"). A benevolent Burgenland motif presents a gentler night-singing raven.

Reported behaviors include nocturnal hunting and visitations, association with the dead and unquiet burials, and harmful interactions with people—especially children. German/Austrian tales describe a night raven that abducts small children (sometimes placing them in a bag or nest and in some versions devouring them). Nordic variants claim that looking into eyeless sockets can cause death and that seeing holes in wings can cause illness. Northern German variants are said to use iron-like wings to beat offenders. A rare benevolent motif (Guter Nachtkrapp) is recorded as singing children to sleep.