The Three Ravens
It is written in the Scots language, and there is no record of how early "The Twa Corbies" was first performed. Child (I, 253) quotes a letter from Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe to Walter Scott (August 8, 1802): "The song of 'The Twa Corbies' was given to me by Miss Erskine of Alva (now Mrs Kerr), who, I think, said that she had written it down from the recitation of an old woman at Alva." This indicates that it was already known in Scotland at that date.[5] It was first published in Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border in 1803.
It has a more dark and cynical tone than the Three Ravens, from which its lyrics were clearly derived.[2] There are only two scavengers in “The Twa Corbies”, but they begin the same way. Rather than commenting on the loyalty of the knight's beasts, the corbies see 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. It contains themes of the fragility of life, life going 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 are 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,[g]
- I heard twa[h] corbies[i] making a mane;[j]
- The tane[k] unto the t'other say,
- ‘Where sall we gang and dine to-day?’
- ‘In behint yon auld fail[l] dyke,
- I wot[m] there lies a new slain knight;
- And naebody kens[n] that he lies there,
- But his hawk, his hound, and lady fair.
- ‘His hound is to the hunting gane,[o]
- His hawk to fetch the wild-fowl hame,[p]
- His lady's taen[q] another mate,
- So we may mak our dinner sweet.
- ‘Ye'll sit on his white hause-bane,[r]
- And I'll pike[s] out his bonny blue een;[t]
- Wi ae lock o his gowden[u] hair
- We'll theek[v] our nest when it grows bare.
- ‘Mony[w] a one for him makes mane,[x]
- But nane sall ken[y] where he is gane;[z]
- Oer[aa] his white banes,[ab] when they are bare,
- The wind sall blaw[ac] for evermair.[ad]’
This ballad was one of 25 traditional works included in Ballads Weird and Wonderful (1912), illustrated by Vernon Hill.
In popular culture
- The popular American rock band The Horrible Crowes takes its name from "Twa Corbies”.
- The song is featured in The Adventure Company's game Jack the Ripper and plays a major role in the gameplay.
- The song is mentioned in Diana Gabaldon's novel The Fiery Cross, when Roger MacKenzie encounters some crows in the woods.
- Oli Steadman included it on his song collection "365 Days Of Folk".[6] (2026).
- The song appears in the 1922 fantasy novel The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison, sung by the Lady Mevrian in mourning for her lost brother.
- Dorothy L. Sayers quotes the last two lines of the ballad in her mystery novel Clouds of Witness.
- There is a story, "The Three Ravens", in Jim Henson's HBO special The StoryTeller which, despite its title, is based on the German fairy tale The Six Swans, not this ballad.
- The ballad was selected for use in the 2017 period film My Cousin Rachel, following a commission for a dark English folk tune to be sung in the film at a Christmas feast for an early-1800s farmstead.[7]
- A recording of the song features in the credits for the 2014 Channel 4 period drama New Worlds, which is set in England during the 1680s.
- A version of the song by John Harle features in Simon Schama's A History of Britain, particularly in the episodes "The Body of the Queen", "The British Wars" and "The Two Winstons".
- The song is sung by Henry VIII in the 2023 film Firebrand, which is about his marriage to Katherine Parr.
- The Australian depressive rock band Expurgatory used the words of "Twa Corbies" in their song "Twa" from their compilation album A lustrum in 2018.[8]
