The Crow Road - Blog Posts

Wanna see a funny thing ? This is the worldwide trend search for The Crow Road

The Two Crow Roads and Second Death

Neil Gaiman “Google can bring you back 100,000 answers, a librarian can bring you back the right one.” They also look at you funny when you request 2 copies of the same book through the inter-library loan. Even funnier looks when you insist on a hardback and paperback copy.

My quest inspired by @crowleysbookshop for the differences between versions of The Crow Road ended with: 1) two different publishers (Scribner vs. Abacus) and 2) different cover work artists. So not allot. If there is a difference, I missed it.

But there's double-meaning of Crow Road.

Crow Road is a street in Glasgow.

Crow Road is also a metaphor for death.

Two Crow Roads. Two Deaths. A second death.

Photo credit: @daria-meoi

Second Death

The phrase "second death" appears 4 times in the Bible, specifically the Book of Revelation. The one Nanny Ashtoreth and Brother Francis read to Warlock.

There's a first physical death. You've shuffled off this mortal coil and gone to meet your maker.

The second death is a reference to an eternal separation from God for non-believers and a swim in the Lake of Fire. Where bad folks go when they die.

A traditional interpretation is that the "lake of fire" and the "second death" are symbolic of eternal pain, pain of loss and perhaps pain of the senses, as punishment for wickedness.

Revelation 20:11-15

“Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

If I read that right those who experience this death are all those whose names have been removed from the Book of Life.

There's Hemingway's quote, "Every man has two deaths, when he is buried in the ground and the last time someone says his name. In some ways men can be immortal." Is that also a Book of Life reference? The power of a name.

I don't understand the Book of Life yet. It's just something you scare cherubs with. I've seen some great meta from @beebopboom on it and the Guardian of the Eastern Gate.

Photo credit @fuckyeahgoodomens

I'm still wondering about these seats. Left Crow Road has rabbit seated. Rabbits are a Fibonacci reference. Then the empty seat. Then second Crow Road with Elspeth's hat over the back.

Why is there an empty seat?

Is it for Death?

A missing book? A book between two deaths. That seat is for the Book of Life.

The theory of The Crow Road

I read The Crow Road, as Crowley advised. I noticed some funny parallels with the GO. I will try to list them briefly:

The hero talks a lot about religion and the injustice of this world. This is similar to the argument between Crowley and Aziraphale in S2E3 (1837).

There is a scene where the hero enthusiastically talks about the creation of the universe and how beautiful it is. This, of course, is very similar to the scene of the S2E1.

At the end of the book, the hero gets a Bentley. There is nothing special here anymore, the car does not play a big role. But a Bentley is a Bentley and not every hero has one.

The main character has a crisis of faith. He argues with God and wants to comprehend him. There is an episode in the book where the hero and his girlfriend are having a conversation about God. His girlfriend says that God is incomprehensible. When you try to understand one part of it, you inevitably miss something else. So it is in the film - Crowley is a disappointed and doubting character, and Aziraphale accepts God without understanding him.

Rory is the hero's missing relative. I draw a parallel with Gabriel here. He's gone, and the only thing left is a matchbox. The story about Rory in the book also looks crumpled. But I found another reference.

Rory's favorite movie is Queen Christina (1933). This is another story about tragic forbidden love. And one of the characters is named Anthony (in the Spanish - Antonio). It's like in the movie "Inception" or like in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" - we go deeper and deeper down the paper steps. In this story, Antonio and Cristina were going to board a ship and sail to the islands of moon and settle in a house on a cliff. (by the way the Islands of the Moon is an outdated name for the Comoros archipelago, located in the Indian Ocean). I like to think that Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet have taken over this cliff house.

Well, the main thing. The romance between the hero and his girlfriend. It is obvious throughout the book that the girl loves our hero. Our hero moves for a long time, but also comes to love. There is an explanation of love between the characters, a scene of intimacy, and then they are orced to part. But the reader can be sure that two lovers will definitely reunite. I think Crowley recommended this book in the first place because of the hopeful ending. Well, because of these few similar little things. P.s. I don't consider Rory's diary a clue (it's not even a diary , but separate notes . Rather, they are more like Agnes's predictions). But I would also like to see Aziraphale's diary in S3.