The Three Ravens

"The Twa Corbies", Illustration by Arthur Rackham to Some British Ballads

"The Three Ravens" (Child 26, Roud 5) is an English folk ballad, printed in the song book Melismata[1] compiled by Thomas Ravenscroft and published in 1611, but it is perhaps older than that. Newer versions (with different music) were recorded right up through the 19th century. Francis James Child recorded several versions in his Child Ballads (catalogued as number 26). A Scottish ballad called "Twa Corbies" ("Two Ravens" or "Two Crows") has lyrics based on Three Ravens with a similar general story, but with a darker twist. Twa Corbies is sung to a different melody.

The ballad takes the form of three scavenger birds conversing about where and what they should eat. One tells of a newly slain knight, but they find he is guarded by his loyal hawks and hounds. Furthermore, a "fallow doe", an obvious metaphor for the knight's pregnant ("as great with young as she might go") lover or mistress (see "leman") comes to his body, kisses his wounds, bears him away, and buries him, leaving the ravens without a meal. The narrator, however, gradually departs from the ravens' point of view, ending with “God send euery gentleman/Such haukes, such hounds, and such a Leman” - the comment of the narrator on the action, rather than the ravens whose discussion he earlier describes.

Alternatively, the lyrics may simply ascribe the apparent narrator's sentiments to the raven(s), which given the previous personification of the raven(s) seems just as possible.

Text of the ballad

The lyrics to "The Three Ravens" are here transcribed using 1611 orthography. They can be sung either straight through in stanzas of four lines each, or in stanzas of two lines each repeating the first line three times depending on how long the performer would like the ballad to last. The second method appears to be the more canonical, so that is what is illustrated below. The refrains are sung in all stanzas, but they will only be shown for the first.

There were three rauens[2] sat on a tree,
downe a downe, hay downe, hay downe,[3]
There were three rauens sat on a tree,
with a downe,
There were three rauens sat on a tree,
They were as blacke as they might be.
With a downe, derrie, derrie, derrie, downe, downe.
The one of them said to his mate,
Where shall we our breakfast take?
Downe in yonder greene field,
There lies a Knight slain under his shield,
His hounds they lie downe at his feete,
So well they can their Master keepe,
His Hawkes they flie so eagerly,
There's no fowle dare him come nie[4]
Downe there comes a fallow Doe,
As great with yong as she might goe,
She lift up his bloudy head,
And kist his wounds that were so red,
She got him up upon her backe,
And carried him to earthen lake,[5]
She buried him before the prime,[6]
She was dead her self ere euen-song time.
God send euery gentleman,
Such haukes, such hounds, and such a Leman.[7]

The Twa Corbies

"The Twa Corbies" is a related Scottish version of the song with a more dark and cynical tone. There are only two scavengers in “The Twa Corbies”, but this is the least of the differences between the songs, though they do begin the same. Rather than commenting on the loyalty of the knight's beasts, the corbies tell that the hawk and the hound have forsaken their master, and are off chasing other game, while his mistress has already taken another lover. The ravens are therefore given an undisturbed meal, as nobody else knows where the man lies, or even that he is dead. They talk in gruesome detail about the meal they will make of him, plucking out his eyes and using his hair for their nests. Some themes believed to be portrayed in "Twa Corbies" are: the fragility of life, the idea life goes on after death, and a more pessimistic viewpoint on life. The loneliness and despair of the song are summed up in the final couplets;

O'er his banes [bones], when they are bare,
The wind sall [shall] blaw for evermair

There may be a few different versions of this anonymously authored poem. The full text of at least one version of the poem is as follows:

As I was walking all alane,[8]
I heard twa[9] corbies[10] making a mane;[11]
The tane[12] unto the t'other say,
‘Where sall we gang and dine to-day?’
‘In behint yon auld fail[13] dyke,
I wot[14] there lies a new slain knight;
And naebody kens[15] that he lies there,
But his hawk, his hound, and lady fair.
‘His hound is to the hunting gane,[16]
His hawk to fetch the wild-fowl hame,[17]
His lady's taen[18] another mate,
So we may mak our dinner sweet.
‘Ye'll sit on his white hause-bane,[19]
And I'll pike[20] out his bonny blue een;[21]
Wi ae lock o his gowden[22] hair
We'll theek[23] our nest when it grows bare.
‘Mony[24] a one for him makes mane,[25]
But nane sall ken[26] where he is gane;[16]
Oer[27] his white banes,[28] when they are bare,
The wind sall blaw[29] for evermair.[30]’

This ballad was one of 25 traditional works included in Ballads Weird and Wonderful (1912) and illustrated by Vernon Hill.

Recordings

"The Three Ravens" or "Twa Corbies" have been performed and recorded by artists such as Heather Alexander, Annwn, A Chorus of Two, Bishi, Boiled in Lead, Scott Boswell, Djazia Satour, Clam Chowder, The Corries, Alfred Deller, The Duplets, Frances Faye, Richard Dyer-Bennet, Fiddler's Dram, Ray & Archie Fisher, John Fleagle and Ewan MacColl, John Harle, Peter, Paul and Mary, Bert Jansch, Joel Cohen, Kalin Sivov, Andrew King, Marie Little, Malinky, Old Blind Dogs, Omnia, Kate Price, Schelmish, Sol Invictus, Sonne Hagal, Sequester, Steeleye Span, Andreas Scholl, Hamish Imlach, Richard Thompson, Ariella Uliano, Diana Obscura, Terre di mezzo, Kenneth McKellar, Custer LaRue and The Baltimore Consort, Merry Wives of Windsor, Sportive Tricks, The Creepy Bard, The Sands Family, Alice Moving Under Skies, Astral Weeks, Winterfylleth and Faun. The album Farewell Aldebaran contains a song clearly based on Three Ravens but the lyric credits go to Judy Henske, music by Jerry Yester.

Reception in other languages

Both "The Three Ravens" and "Twa Corbies" have been translated to other languages, typically all sung to the same melody as Twa Corbies, or that of the Breton song called An Alarc'h (The Swan).

Known versions include:

Notes

  1. ↑ Thomas Ravenscroft, William Ravenscroft (1611). "Covntry Pastimes". Melismata. p. 20. Retrieved 2007-08-15.
  2. ↑ In printed text of the time, u and v were often used interchangeably.
  3. ↑ The refrain consists of nonsense words that create a vocal musical interlude between lines of the stanza. See Puirt a beul.
  4. ↑ Nie: Variant of nigh.
  5. ↑ Lake: Pit.
  6. ↑ Prime, Euen-song: see Canonical hours.
  7. ↑ Leman: Sweetheart or mistress
  8. ↑ alone
  9. ↑ two
  10. ↑ carrion crows
  11. ↑ moan
  12. ↑ one
  13. ↑ turf
  14. ↑ know
  15. ↑ knows
  16. 1 2 gone
  17. ↑ home
  18. ↑ taken
  19. ↑ breast bone
  20. ↑ peck
  21. ↑ eyes
  22. ↑ with a lock of his golden
  23. ↑ feather
  24. ↑ many
  25. ↑ a moan
  26. ↑ none shall know
  27. ↑ over
  28. ↑ bones
  29. ↑ shall blow
  30. ↑ evermore

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