The Two Ravens- Brooks (DC) 1956 Chase
[This is not based on a traditional ballad. It has entered oral tradition from Cleveland's Compendium which was published in Philadelphia in 1848, with subsequent editions reprinted in 1859 etc. The original, from Allan Cunningham, was printed in 1825 in Cunningham's Songs of Scotland, Vol. I, pp. 289-290. Cunningham rewrote Scott's text from 1803 (See Twa Corbies- Child A a.). There are slight differences in the text.
See also Henry A, the first reported instance of Cunningham's ballad entering tradition.
Chase's notes follow,
R. Matteson 2014]
This extraordinarily good text came to me through Mrs. Willard Brooks, now of Washington, D. C. She could not remember where she learned it. Artus Moser collected it on Gashes Creek, Hickory Nut Gap, near Asheville, North Carolina, and Annabel Morris Buchanan has found it in Virginia. An "original" text appeared in a high school book in 1859, A Compendium of English Literature by Charles D. Cleveland. It was also recorded in the Southern Mountains by Mellenger Henry from a Mrs. Henry C. Gray now of Terre Haute, Indiana. The tune, "Ye Banks and Braes of Bonnie Doon," is used for Hymn No. 311 in The Methodist Hymnal (1939)- "Come, o Thou Traveller Unknown"- and is given there as a "Scottish traditional melody," from The Hesperian Harp, 1847. A somewhat similar text has been reported from Florida.
The Two Ravens
1. There were two ravens sat on a tree,
And they were black, as they could be;
And one of them I heard him say:
Oh where shall we go to dine today?
Shall we go down to the salt, salt sea,
Or shall we go dine by the greenwood tree?
Shall we go down to the salt, salt sea,
Or shall we go dine by the greenwood tree?
2. As I walked down on the white sea sand
I saw a fair ship sailing near at hand.
I waved my wings, I bent my beak,
that ship she sank and I heard a shriek.
There lie the sailors, one, two, and three,
Oh shall we go dine by the wild salt sea?
There lie the sailors, one, two, and three,
Oh shall we go dine by the wild salt sea.
3. Come, I shall show you a far better sight-
a lonesome glen, and a new-slain knight:
his blood yet on the grass is hot,
his sword half-drawn, his shafts unshot.
And no one knows that he lies there
but his hound, his hawk, and his lady fair.
And no one knows that he lies there
but his hound, his hawk, and his lady fair.
4. His hound is to the hunting gone,
his hawk to fetch the wild fowl home,
his lady's away to another mate-
Oh we shall make our feasting sweet,
Our dinner is sure, our feasting is free,
Oh come and we'll dine by the greenwood tree,
Out dinner is sure, our feasting is free.
Oh come and we'll dine by the greenwood tree!
5. Oh you shall tear at his naked white thighs,
and I'll peck out his fair blue eyes,
you can pull a lock of his fine yellow hair
to thicken your nest where it grows bare,
The golden down on his young chin
will do to rest my young ones in,
The golden down on his young chin
will do to rest my young ones in.
6. Oh cold and bare with his bed be
when grey winter storms sing in the tree,
His head's on the turf, at his feet a stone,
He'll sleep nor hear young maidens mourn,
Over his white bones the birds will fly,
the wild deer run, the foxes cry,
over his white bones the birds will fly,
the wild deer run, the foxes cry.