Sorry
@Ripshod!
To get back onto the subject of vultures, the word vulture comes to us via Anglo-Norman
vultur and
voutre which come from Old French
voltour,
voultour,
voutour which got it from Latin. The first attested use in English seems to be Chaucer in 1374 which is comparatively late:
I graunte wel þat þow endurest wo.
As sharp as doth þe Ticius yn helle.
whos stomak foughles tiren euere mo.
That highte
volturis as bokes telle.
I grant well that you endured woe
As sharp as did Tityus in hell
whose stomach birds tear at ever more
Those that they call vultures, as books tell
This is a reference to the Greek myth of Tityus/Tityos, who was condemned to have his liver torn out by two vultures by day, only for his liver to grow back at night to be torn out again the following day, and so on forever. The late date of this first attested use and the reference to classical mythology both suggest that vultures were not commonly encountered by English speakers; they learnt about vultures through myth and story rather than directly seeing them. Compare this to an example of
heafoc - hawk - from c1000 (from The Fortunes of Men
http://www.oereader.ca/Fortfram.htm, translation based on Robert Dinapoli's). The description is based on clear familiarity with the process of gentling a wild hawk. Helen MacDonald's
H is for Hawk details the same process when she describes her first interactions with Mabel, a goshawk, a thousand years later.
Sum sceal wildne fugel wloncne atemian,
heafoc on honda, oþþæt seo heoroswealwe
wynsum weorþeð; deþ he wyrplas on,
fedeþ swa on feterum fiþrum dealne,
lepeþ lyftswiftne lytlum gieflum,
oþþæt se wælisca wædum ond dædum
his ætgiefan eaðmod weorþeð
ond to hagostealdes honda gelæred
Another one can tame the wild, splendid bird
the hawk, to his hands, til the battle-swallow grows meek
a thing of delight; he fits its jesses
feeds it so with its proud wings restrained
offers little morsels to the air-swift creature
til that alien spirit - its feathers, its flight -
yields humbly to its nourisher
and to the young man's hand is trained
There are actually a number of Old English words for birds - you can explore these with the Historical Thesarus
ht.ac.uk
ht.ac.uk
Remember that we tend to have words for things we encounter every day so there are a number of Old English words for different kinds of hawk and falcon. Falconry was incredibly popular, so we get a huge number of words for different kinds of raptor - different species of hawk and falcon, different genders (e.g. a male peregrine is called a tercel), very young or old raptors, different parts of their bodies, their flight, and words relating to their care, training and equipment needed to look after them. Vultures don't occupy the same space in the specifically English imagination because not enough people encountered them.
www.bbc.co.uk
For some odd reason my brother supports Newcastle United (we have absolutely no connections to Newcastle!) and my other brother used to support Manchester United. As the youngest and only girl my punishment was to go in goal, and I had to be Liverpool (a great insult in my family!)
