"Odin's Raven on the shield"

The Raven is the bird of Odin

The Raven was considered a sacred bird of different gods from different mythologies. So he was the bird of Apollo and Athena (she was a crow.), the ancient Kronos, jealous and suspicious Hera, Irish "master of all crafts" meadows. But the most expressive is the role of the ravens - satellites Scandinavian Odin, God of battle and sorcery.

The names of his two ravens - Hugin, old Icelandic Huginn means "thoughtful" and Munin, Muninn — "mindful" (or "thought" and "memory" respectively). Crows reflect the prophetic, the visionary, the magical nature of Odin as well, like wolves - aggressive and predatory side.

Hugin and Munin — a pair of ravens in Norse mythology who fly around the world Midgard and tell the God Odin about what is happening.

Ravens are mentioned in such literary monuments of the XIII century Scandinavia, as the Elder and Younger Edda, the Circle of the Earth, the Third grammatical treatise of Olaf Thordarson, as well as in skaldic poetry.

In these works, Hugin and Munin are described as servants of Odin crows that sit on his shoulders and provide his information. In the Circle the Earth describes how One gave the ravens a speech. The role Hugin and Munin as messengers of the Supreme as connected with the tradition of shamanic practices and General symbols of the Germanic peoples, depicting a Raven with a source of hidden knowledge.

The "Elder Edda", "The Speech Of Grimnir",:
"Hugin and Munin over the world fly all the time without getting tired. Hugin scary for me, scary for Munin, to return the ravens!"

Against this background, I had the idea of such mascot Raven, classic Scandinavian styling on the "wooden" shield with the symbol Valknut (quintessential magic of Odin).

Hugin and Munin. Know and Remember.
Well versed in all that is happening in the two worlds, they whisper to man the mysteries of life and death. Their voice is the voice of the beyond, the voice of the abyss, in which hidden the start and destiny of all that exists, the voice of the unconscious.
To hear him means to distinguish between the dictates of fate and acquire an inexhaustible source of inspiration.