Starlings, Whales and Herring: Animals as Portents in Early Modern England

Abstract

The present article explores the early modern preoccupation with omens – extraordinary occurrences observed both on earth and in the sky – which were universally believed to presage some future events and/or provide humans with providential signs and messages. Animals apparently formed a category of particularly common portents, due to their ubiquity and traditional links with the supernatural. Numerous examples of such omens demonstrate that animals and their behaviour were capable of evoking a variety of interpretations (moral, political, religious, etc.) and were indispensable in upholding the emblematic vision of the world, which, providentially, was supposed to be full of signs that could be deciphered by careful observers for their own benefit.