I don’t remember towards imprint on the snow, however, there are rooks at nighttime is on the rise

To the twentieth day their father explains you to pet commonly allowed regarding the venture where they live

Susan Cooper, The Dark is Rising . Thanks for the suggestion but that isn’t the one. Setting is a world other than our own. The boy is being pursued through much of the book and the symbol on the staff(?) is evidence of his destiny. I think his pursuers sought to kill him initially and failed. Limited on how much I could put in the original post by PayPal though honestly my memory is the biggest limitation here. Patricia McKillip, Riddlemaster of Hed , 1976. Some details don’t match exactly, but it sounds like McKillip ‘s Riddlemaster trilogy.