The Wow of the Raven or The Wow O Riven is a great example of George McDonald's wonderful storytelling. Riven is Ruthven, Aberdeenshire, and The "Wow o Riven" refers to the local church bell. The hero of the story is the old "fool", also known as "colonel" who is buried near to the old bell. W.H. Auden wrote in his introduction to the 1954 reprint of Lilith, "George MacDonald is pre-eminently a mythopoeic writer...In his power...to project his inner life into images, beings, landscapes which are valid for all, he is one of the most remarkable writers of the nineteenth century."