A Robin Entering the House

Recorded English folk belief

Henderson records a different Suffolk warning: a robin calling at the door. The feared sign did not always require the bird to enter.

William Henderson, Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders, new edition (1879), Life and Death of Man; Suffolk robin-at-the-door account, immediately before the Sussex list of death omens

A recorded English omen linking a robin’s entry into a house with death.

Sources2 sources

Primary source

William Henderson, Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Borders, new edition (W. Satchell, Peyton and Co. for the Folk-Lore Society, 1879), 1879, Life and Death of Man; Suffolk robin-at-the-door account, immediately before the Sussex list of death omensRecords the named locality, reported belief or custom, attributed meaning and local detail stated in this entry.
Isabella Barclay, Scraps of Folklore, collected chiefly in Berkshire, Folk-Lore: A Quarterly Review, Volume5, 1894, “Scraps of Folklore, collected chiefly in Berkshire”, Death Omens, Folk-Lore5 (1894),337; entry marked “Bath”; signed Isabella Barclay on338The house-entry death omen is explicitly assigned to Bath. The article begins on336 and is signed Isabella Barclay on338.
sign of death