I'm confused. In this thread someone posted that the much darker Twa Corbies song dates from the 19th century, whereas the Three Ravens song was first published in 1611 and probably dates from the 16th century.

The Wikipedia article on the subject contradicts itself - it states in the introduction that:

A Scottish ballad called "Twa Corbies" ("Two Ravens" or "Two Crows") has lyrics based on "The Three Ravens"

... which implies again that "The Three Ravens" is the older of the two, but also further down, the same article states that:

"The Twa Corbies" is an even older Scottish song with a more dark and cynical tone from which Three Ravens probably came.

So which song really came first?

Dave