The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #9564   Message #4174751
Posted By: GUEST,Julia L
17-Jun-23 - 09:19 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Twa Corbies / Three Ravens / etc.
Subject: RE: Origins: Twa Corbies / Three Ravens / etc.
Here's one from a singer in CT who learned from her grandmother in Maine
Ancient Ballads Traditionally Sung in New England by Helen Hartness Flanders
Volume 1 page 246

B variant - The Two Crows
Mrs. G. C. Erskine of Cheshire, CT sang this “glee piece” as learned from her grandmother, Orinda Townsend, of Dixfield, Maine (born 1828) H.H. F. Collector, October 1, 1939

There were two crows sat on a tree
Hi-dum die-dum derry I-O
There were two crows sat on a tree
Hi, derry O
There were two crows sat on a tree
And they were black as crows could be
Hi-dum die-dum derry I-O

(For succeeding stanzas follow pattern of first stanza)

Said one old crow unto his mate
“What shall we have for grub to ate?”

“There lies a horse on yonder plain
‘T is just six weeks since he was slain”

We’ll sit upon his bare backbone
And pick his eyes out one by one

“There comes a lady full of woe
She’s full of grief as she can go”

She sat down by the horse’s side
And for the love of his rider died.