Three Ravens, The

(ca. 15th century)

   The Three Ravens is one of the best known of the English and Scottish popular BALLADS of the late Middle Ages. It may be one of the earliest extant ballads, though it was first printed only in Thomas Ravencroft’s Melismata (1611). In any case the apparent metamorphosis of the lover into a doe is characteristic of ancient songs (Morgan 1996, 119). The ballad is an analogue to The Twa Corbies and some believe also to the CORPUS CHRISTI CAROL. The formation of such analogues is easy to understand when one takes into account the oral tradition of balladry. There is argument as to whether The Twa Corbies or The Three Ravens is the earlier of the two ballads. It now appears that the more cynical Twa Corbies was the original and The Three Ravens may be aristocratic adaptation.

   Like many ballads the main image of The Three Ravens is tragic. Three Ravens discuss what they are going to have for breakfast. One spies a fallen knight that lies under his shield.Another raven notices that the knight’s hawk and hound protect him. A pregnant deer buries the knight and dies that evening of a broken heart. Most commentators assume that the doe is the knight’s lover, transformed into a deer.

   Other interpretations of the poem have suggested that the knight is Christ and the deer the bride of Christ, the Christian soul. Another suggestion is that the knight is the Maimed King, of the Grail tradition. Certainly much is made in the poem of the knight’s bloody wounds, kissed by the doe. There may be an allusion in this to the Eucharist, the consumption of the body and blood of Christ. This is the chief aspect of the poem that connects it to the Corpus Christi Carol.

   Bibliography

   ■ Child, Francis James, ed. The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. New York: Cooper Square, 1965.

   ■ Morgan, Gwendolyn A., ed, and trans. Medieval Ballads: Chivalry, Romance, and Everyday Life: A Critical Anthology. New York: Peter Lang, 1996.

   Malene A. Little