The Twa Corbies

Original Track ID

SA1971.297.A8

Original Tape ID

SA1971.297

Summary

Two corbies [crows] decide they will dine on the corpse of a newly-slain knight, who lies behind a fail dyke [sod wall]. His hound has gone hunting, his hawk wildfowling and his lady to another mate. One will sit on his hause bane [collarbone] while the other picks out his eyes, and his hair will theek [thatch] their nest when it grows bare. No one knows the knight is there and the wind will blow over his bones for ever.

Pat Bowley won a competition in New Zealand singing this song several years previously. She recalls that when Hamish Henderson brought some Bretons to her family home she heard them sing the original song, called 'An Alarc'h' [The Swan], from which the tune is taken.

Item Notes

5 verses. Tune 'An Alarc'h' put to it by Morris Blythman (pseudonym Thurso Berwick).

See:
'Vagabond Songs & Ballads' vol. 2 (R. Ford, 1901) pp. 155-156
'Minstrelsy Ancient & Modern' (W. Motherwell, 1827) pp. 7-8

Recording Location

Language

Scots

Genre

Song Information

Collection

SoSS

Classification

R5 C26

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good