A second century statue was found in the province of Limburg, with a dedication to the goddess Arcanua.

The rooster is sometimes seen as a rather dark and ominous bird in Dutch folklore, comparable to owls and corvids. An old story recounts how a man on the isle of Schiermonnikoog was checking if he had caught any fish, which was not the case. Walking back on the beach, he encountered a red rooster. The rooster was tame, it let itself get caught in the bag the man wads carrying with him. However, as the man walked on, the bag became so heavy, so heavy that he dropped it. He heard loud laughter and realized that the rooster was in fact the Old One (i.e. the Devil). The devil disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving a horrible stench.

There is some folklore concerning the red rooster symbolizing fire. In older times this animal was esepcially associated with arson. There are stories about people receiving threatening letters in which one had to follow certain orders and if they did not, then “soon a red rooster will be crowing on your roof”. In later times this animal was associated with fire in general. It is not known where this slice of folklore originates. Some people have pointed out that Norse myth tells of red roosters that herald the coming of Ragnarok (the end of the world as we know it), but this is only a theory.

Sources

Teenstra, Marten Douwes. Verscheidenheden betrekkelijk booze kunden en wetenschappen door eene phantastische wereld geschapen en wel inzonderheid die der tooverijen en waarzeggerijen. Zijnde eene rapsodie van sprookjes van vroegere en latere dagen, uit onderscheiden schrijvers en mondelingen mededeelingen verzameld…Kampen: K. van Hulst. 1846 (Republished 1973).