The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #9564   Message #1238068
Posted By: Jim McLean
31-Jul-04 - 06:10 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Twa Corbies / Three Ravens / etc.
Subject: RE: Twa corbies on a tree. Words??
The version recorded by Ray Fisher was learned from Morris Blythman, words and melody. I have a copy of that version (text) printed in The Golden Treasury of The Most Beautiful Songs and Lyrics in the English Language, (sic) Selected and arranged by Francis Turner Palgrave, published in 1861. Palgrave says the poem existed in this form in the seventeenth century but it's obviously the same as that published by Walter Scott who said he collected it from the singing of a lady.