The Three Ravens

The Three Ravens is one of the oldest English folk ballads still widely performed. Its first known printed appearance was in Melismata: Musicall Phansies Fitting the Court, Citie, and Countrey Humours, a collection compiled by the English musician Thomas Ravenscroft and published in 1611. The words and melody may be considerably older, however, having circulated through oral tradition before Ravenscroft preserved them in print. The ballad was later catalogued as No. 26 in Francis James Child’s monumental collection The English and Scottish Popular Ballads.

The song begins almost like a grim folktale: three ravens sit in a tree discussing where they might find their breakfast. One raven knows of a knight lying slain beneath his shield in a nearby field. Yet the knight’s body is not abandoned. His faithful hounds remain at his feet, while his hawks circle overhead so fiercely that no other bird dares approach.

The story then moves beyond the natural world into the realm of symbol and legend. A “fallow doe,” soon to give birth, comes to the knight, lifts his bloodied head, kisses his wounds and carries him away for burial. The doe is generally understood to represent the knight’s beloved—a transformation that gives the ballad the dreamlike quality of a medieval romance. The final word “leman,” now archaic, means a sweetheart or lover. The concluding blessing therefore wishes every gentleman hawks, hounds and a beloved as faithful as those of the fallen knight.

The apparently lighthearted refrain—“Downe a downe, hey downe”—creates a striking contrast with the increasingly tragic story. Its dancing rhythms and repeated nonsense syllables belong to the communal world of traditional song, yet they continually return after images of violence, devotion and death. This tension between the familiar refrain and the dark narrative is one of the ballad’s most haunting features.

An especially interesting comparison can be made with the later Scottish version, The Twa Corbies. In that ballad the knight’s attendants have deserted him, his lady has taken another lover, and the birds are free to consume his body. The Three Ravens, by contrast, is ultimately a song about loyalty. The knight’s hounds guard him, his hawks defend him and his beloved sacrifices herself to preserve his dignity. Death may claim the knight, but it cannot erase the devotion surrounding him.

​

In this arrangement for SATB choir and chamber orchestra, the instrumental writing does more than accompany the voices. The changing orchestral colors evoke the circling ravens, the desolate field, the watchful animals and the solemn journey toward burial. By intensifying the contrasts between the lively refrain and the ballad’s darker images, the orchestration enlarges and illuminates the meaning of the words, allowing their mystery, tenderness and tragedy to emerge with renewed intensity.

Text

There were three Ravens sat on a tree,
Downe a downe, hey downe a downe.
They were as blacke as blacke could be—with a downe.
Then one of them said to his mate,
Where shall we our breakfast take?
With a downe, derrie, derry, derry, downe, downe.

Downe in yonder greene field,
Downe a downe, hey downe a downe.
There lies a Knight slain ’neath his shield—with a downe.
His hounds they lie downe at his feete
So well do they their Master keepe
With a downe, derrie, derry, derry, downe, downe.

His Hawkes they flie so eagerly,
Downe a downe, hey downe a downe.
No fowle would dare come nie to him—with a downe.
Downe there comes a fallow Doe,
As great with yong as she might go
With a downe, derrie, derry, derry, downe, downe.

She lifted up his bloody head,
Downe a downe, hey downe a downe.
And kiss'd his wounds that were so red—with a downe.
She got him up upon her back
And carried him to earthen lake.
With a downe, derrie, derry, derry, downe, downe.

She buried him before the prime,
Downe a downe, hey downe a downe.
She was dead her selfe ere evensong time—with a downe.
God sent every gentleman,
Such hawkes, such hounds, and such leman.
With a downe, derrie, derry, derry, downe, downe