The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #54696   Message #849128
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
17-Dec-02 - 04:08 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Three Ravens, newer version?
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Three Ravens, newer version?
I was wondering about this one; thanks for the information, Karine. The text above (how much has it been adapted?) comes from a collection made by Andrew Crawfurd, that wasn't available to Child or Bronson. It appears in Emily B. Lyle's Andrew Crawfurd's Collection of Ballads and Songs, vol.I, 1975. Crawfurd noted it from Mary MacQueen (Mrs. Storie) of Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire, between 1826 and 1828 (information from the Roud Folk Song Index).

I don't have the books, so I don't know what the tune is like; but the text is very close indeed to that quoted by Child in E&SPB vol.V p. 212 (Additions and Corrections), and which was noted from tradition in Lincolnshire in the early 19th century. It's unusual to find a text in this form from a Scottish source, though Motherwell published a tune with just the one verse in 1827.