'The Twa Corbies'- Douglas Hamer 1947
'The Twa Corbies'
by Douglas Hamer
The Review of English Studies, Vol. 23, No. 92 (Oct., 1947), pp. 354-355
'THE TWA CORBIES'
THE Scottish ballad, 'The Twa Corbies' (and to a less extent its English counterpart, 'The Three Ravens') is unusual among ballads because the theme of human tragedy is presented as a conversation between carrion crows. The presumption is that the writer deliberately, if peculiarly, put this ballad into this form of a dialogue between carrion crows solely to present the theme in a form different from that usually chosen by ballad-writers.
There are, however, other Scottish rhymes concerning carrion crows which reveal a more certain origin for the form of this ballad. An item in Robert Chambers's Popular Rhymes of Scotland, reprinted below from the third edition, 1847, p. 165, discloses that Scottish rustics and shepherds formerly created simple conversation-pieces between crows. The bases of the two dialogues recorded by Chambers are: (I) the habit of crows to 'converse' with each other; (2) their voracity, from which it is assumed that their 'conversation' is always about carrion, where it is to be found, and its degree of succulence; (3) attempts to reproduce the staccato-effect of the croaking; (4) the belief that the harsh croaking betokens malicious intentions, especially towards man.
The Corbie
The rapacious and unsocial character of the carrion crow, and the peculiar sounds of its voice, have given rise to curious notions respecting it among the rustic classes. The lonely shepherd who overhears a pair croaking behind a neighbouring hillock or enclosure amuses his fancy by forming regular dialogues out of their conversation-thus, for instance:
A hoggie dead! a hoggie dead! a hoggie dead!
Oh where? oh where? oh where?
Down i' e' park! down i' e' park! down i' e' park!
Is't fat? is't fat? is't fat?
Come try! come try! come try!
So in Galloway; but thus in Tweeddale:
Sekito says, there's a hogg dead!
Where? where?
Up the burn! up the burn!
Is't fat? is't fat?
't's a' creesh! 't's a' creesh!
The origin of 'The Twa Corbies' is now clearer. The story is told by a man 'walking all alane' who heard two corbies talking. One asked where they should dine to-day: the other says, 'behind yon auld fail dyke', and describes the dead body of the knight which will be their 'dinner sweet'. One will eat his white neck, the other his 'bonny blue een', and they will take his hair to thatch the nest.
This ballad is thus a development of the Scottish rustic habit of 'interpreting the conversation' of carrion crows. In this literary development the staccato-effect, reproduced in the verses recorded by Chambers, was sacrificed for the sake of presenting a story told through the melancholy reaction of the listener to the dialogue. The crows are thus deprived of the note of croaking triumph seen in Chambers's two poems, and the note of human melancholy prevails.
The link between the rustic rhymes and the ballad does not prove that
the latter was written by a rustic; the finish appears to preclude that
possibility. It only reveals that the writer was acquainted with this particular
rustic habit of forming rhymes to the sound of the croaking of crows,
and developed it consciously.
DOUGLAS HAMER