Три ворона: Английская народная баллада

English folk ballad

"The Three Ravens" is an English folk ballad, printed in the song book Melismata 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). 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 narrative ends with "God send euery gentleman / Such haukes, such hounds, and such a Leman".

"The Three Ravens" and "Twa Corbies" have been performed and recorded by artists such as Heather Alexander, Annwn, A Chorus of Two, Ayreheart, Damh the Bard, Boiled in Lead, Djazia Satour, Cécile Corbel, The Corries, Crooked Mouth, Alfred Deller, The Duplets, Frances Faye, Richard Dyer Bennet, Fiddler's Dram, Ray Fisher & Archie Fisher, John Fleagle and Ewan MacColl, John Harle, The Hare and The Moon, Peter, Paul and Mary, Bert Jansch, Joel Cohen, Kalin Sivov, Andrew King, Seth Lakeman, Mandala Folk, Marie Little, Malinky, Old Blind Dogs, Omnia, Kate Price, Schelmish, Sol Invictus, Sonne Hagal, Sequester, Steeleye Span, Andreas Scholl, Hamish Imlach, Libera, Richard Thompson, Ariella Uliano, Diana Obscura, 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.

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. 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. The novel was one of the favourites of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. Dorothy L. Sayers quotes the last two lines of the ballad in her mystery novel Clouds of Witnesses. There is a story, The 3 Ravens, in Jim Henson's HBO special The Storyteller which, despite its title, is based on the German fairy tale The Six Swans. The ballad was selected for use in the 2017 period film My Cousin Rachel, following a commission for a "dark" English folk tune sung at a Christmas feast for an early 1800s farmstead. 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. The song, in a version 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 Australian depressive rock band Expurgatory used the words from "Twa Corbies" in their song "Twa" from their compilation album "A lustrum" in 2018.

(German) – a parody of “The Three Ravens”.