The Three Ravens
"The Three Ravens" is a folk ballad, recorded in the song book Melismata compiled by Thomas Ravenscroft and published in 1611, but it is doubtless older than that. More recent versions were recorded right up through the 19th century. Francis James Child recorded several versions in his Child Ballads (catalogued as number 26). A common deriviative song is called "Twa Corbies" (literally "Two Ravens"), and it follows a similar general story, although it differs greatly in important ways. While "The Three Ravens" is hopeful and uplifting, "Twa Corbies" is dreary and cynical.
Lyrics of the Ballad
The ballad takes the form of three scavenger birds conversing about where and what they should eat. One mentions a recently slain knight, but they find he is guarded by his loyal hawk and hound. Furthermore a doe, often believed to be the knight's mistress in supernatural form, comes upon him, cleans his wounds, bears him away, and buries him, leaving the ravens without an apparent meal.
That there are only two scavengers in "Twa Corbies" is the least of the differences in the song, yet they do begin the same. However, rather than commenting on the loyalty of the knight's beasts, the corbie mentions that the hawk and the hound have abandoned their master, and are off chasing other game. Furthermore his mistress has already taken another lover, so they are guaranteed an undisturbed meal, as no one else even knows where the man lies, or that he's even dead. They discuss in some gruesome detail the meal they will make out of him, plucking out his eye and using his hair for their nests. The loneliness and desparity of the song are summed up in the final couplet:
- O'er his banes, when they are bare,
- The wind sall blaw for evermair
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 rauens1 sat on a tree,
- downe a downe, hay downe, hay downe,2
- 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 nie3.
- 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 lake4,
- She buried him before the prime5,
- She was dead her self ere euen-song time.
- God send euery gentleman,
- Such haukes, such hounds, and such a Leman6.
Notes
Note 1: In printed text of the time, u and v were often used interchangeably. Note 2: The refrain consists of nonsense words that create a vocal musical interlude between lines of the stanza. See Mouth music. Note 3: Nie: Variant of nigh. Note 4: Lake: Pit. Note 5: Prime, Euen-song: see Canonical hours. Note 6: Leman: Sweetheart or mistress