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# Birth with teeth in Shakespeare’s “Henry VI” and in European folklore
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/kogda-rozhdalsia-ty-sova-krichala-bezvremene-veshchaia-plakal-filin-psy-vyli-uragan-krushil-derevia-spustilsia-na-trubu-zloveshchii-voron-i-khor-sorok-nestroino-strekotal/
- Published: 2021-01-07T15:43:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T19:00:09.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Books, Science, Ethnography

When you were born, the owl screamed,  
Foretelling ill times, the horned owl wept,  
Dogs howled, a hurricane tore down the trees,  
An ominous raven settled on the chimney,  
And a chorus of magpies chattered out of tune.  
And your mother, though she suffered more  
Than other mothers do, bore  
Less joy to herself than she should have done,  
A shapeless, ugly lump,  
Unlike the fruit of such a tree.  
You were born with teeth, as a sign  
That you had come into the world to torment people.

*Literal translation*

With these words Henry addresses Gloucester in Part 3 of the drama “Henry VI”. In these lines Shakespeare alludes to omens from European folklore: an old tradition holds that children born with milk teeth are destined to wield great power. In the French language this superstition survives in an idiom about long teeth, denoting a thirst for power. Russian folklore promises babies born with natal teeth robust health and prosperity. But on the whole this is quite a rarity: only 1 baby in 2,500 comes into the world with teeth that erupted while he was still in the womb.