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"The Lissener and the Other Voyce Owl of the Worl"
This story slightly recalls an American Indian myth in which Owl tries to maintain a permanent night by repeating the word "dark," while Rabbit repeats the word "light." Eventually Owl slips up and daylight is allowed to exist. Here is a version that is attributed to the Menominee tribe, but similar stories are reported throughout North America. [EB]
The owl is an age-old symbol seemingly derived, in European myth, from the Etruscans. The Grey Hooded Owl is always in the background of Etruscan art, as a kind of "seeing eye" from the realms of the spirit. This has carried over to traditional Italian witchcraft, Stregha, where the Grey Owl is the symbol of La Streghoneria. [SF] And owls, like lions and seagulls, recur throughout Hoban's books: they are spirit harbingers in Pilgermann and Fremder, and there is a more cheerful (but still carnivorous) owl with a repetition compulsion in Hoban's children's story "The Marzipan Pig." [EB]