Page 152 - Lanzarotto Malocello from Italy to the Canary Islands

152 from Italy to the Canary Islands

Appendix ii

With regard to the owl,

night watcher

he owl is one of the great night watchers and has a strong connec-
tion with darkness and mystery. The night has many landscapes
and, in the dark, we can also speak of horizons. Of course, there
are also horizons at night and therefore life is what is taken nearby, from
the bird of prey’s observation point – it may strike us as difficult to speak
about the owl as a bird of prey, but that is what it is – and from the other
(or the others) deployed all around or along that faraway line which cannot
exactly be described as “down there”.
One of the night watchers is the owl; it is certainly not the only one,
but we can say that it is the most famous, the most symbolic, the one
which stands out and whose form, as well as presence, seems to want to
put across regality.
hoot owl