The Three Ravens
traditional song
"The Three Ravens" (Roud 5, Child 26) is an English folk ballad, printed in the songbook Melismata compiled by Thomas Ravenscroft and published in 1611, but the song is possibly older than that. Newer versions (with different music) were recorded up through the 19th century. Francis James Child recorded several versions in his Child Ballads (catalogued as number 26).
The ballad centers three scavenger birds conversing about where and what they should eat. One tells the others of a newly slain knight, but they find he is guarded by his loyal hawks and hounds. Furthermore, a "fallow doe", a 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".
Text of the ballad
These lyrics to "The Three Ravens" are 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 more canonical, so it is what is illustrated below.
“The Three Ravens” enters the record as traditional song. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Three, Ravens and traditional can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“The Three Ravens” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Three, Ravens and traditional provides the most credible route into that argument.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1982361. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1611.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Three Ravens” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.