The Twa Corbies As I was walking all alane, I heard twa corbies making a mane; The tane unto the t’other say, ‘Where sall we gang and dine to-day?’ ‘In behint yon auld fail dyke, I wot there lies a new-slain knight; And naebody kens that he lies there, But his hawk, his hound, and his lady fair. ‘His hound is to the hunting gane, His hawk, to fetch the wild-fowl hame, His lady’s ta’en another mate, So we may mak our dinner sweet. ‘Ye’ll sit on his white hause-bane, And I’ll pike out his bonny blue een. Wi’ ae lock o’ his gowden hair, We’ll theek our nest when it grows bare. ‘Mony a ane for him makes mane, But nane sall ken whare he is gane: O’er his white banes, when they are bare, The wind sall blaw for evermair.’ Brief glossary Twa Corbies – two carrion crows auld fail dyke – old turf wall hause-bane – breast-bone theek – feather A more detailed glossary can be found here, as well as the texts of The Twa Corbies and The Three Ravens. This Scottish ballad is an unusually pared-down narrative, sharp and fine as one of those wind-whipped bones imagined in the last stanza. The storyline is minimal. A rhyme scheme of couplets, two per stanza, enhances the chilling briskness. There’s a human narrator, but s/he bows out after three lines. Of the two crows, one has a single, though essential, line: “Where sall we gang and dine today?” The other, having reconnoitred the scene already and worked out the feeding strategy, replies in vivid, uncompromising detail. Anthropomorphism of this kind can be justified on the grounds that the invented bird-talk reflects real, observable bird behaviour regarding food, territory and judicious co-operation. That the birds’ hunger has been aroused is suggested by their “making a moan” – they’re not simply making a noise, but are disturbed and excited. When the alpha crow sets out the plan, the other bird, notably, doesn’t argue. The two are a couple, with a nest to furnish. If the male bird is lording it over the hen, the hen doesn’t complain. Eating in the wild is dangerous, and the corbies’ constant awareness of threat is a mark of the ballad-maker’s empathy with nature. In the fourth verse, the speaker-crow assigns the other the role of sentry. It seems best to play safe, although there’s no danger from the knight’s once-loyal companions, “his hawk, his hound and his lady fair”. Whether or not they have looked unsuccessfully for the body, their lives have quickly resumed without it. They won’t be coming back. None of their activities, not even the widow’s hasty receipt of a new lover, are condemned, merely reported. These are biological imperatives, similar to those which drive the crows to their carrion-feast. The relationship of The Twa Corbies and the English ballad, The Three Ravens is fascinating because each looks in the opposite direction. The ravens begin with a food-centred question, “Where shall we our breakfast take?” but the answer is entirely different. We learn that the hounds have lain down (to pine and die?) at their master’s feet. The hawks “fly so eagerly / There is no fowl dare him come nigh”. Most extraordinarily and fancifully, the knight’s lady comes into the picture in the shape of a deer. Heavily pregnant, she caresses the knight and manages to gather his corpse on to her back. She takes him to “an earthen lake” (a pit), where she buries him. She is dead herself “ere evensong time”. These companion-creatures obey Christian and courtly tradition. But the hawks will ensure the ravens give up the idea of breakfast. While The Twa Corbies was first published in 1812, and The Three Ravens in 1611, the Scottish ballad may well have existed as a song as early as, or earlier than, The Three Ravens. Perhaps The Three Ravens is a Christianised version of the abrasively realist Corbies. Or could The Twa Corbies have satirical intentions, mocking the hypocrisy of the English knightly code represented in The Three Ravens? If I had to choose between them, I’d favour The Twa Corbies, on poetic and ethical grounds. It would go too far to call it an environmental parable. But it reminds us that all living species can be mercilessly predatory, subject to biological forces that are irresistible and destructive. That, I think, lends it contemporary relevance.