The+Twa+Corbies

=Twa Corbies=



Analysis

 * Twa Corbies**


 * Pg. 194**


 * Twa Corbies – Two ravens


 * Medieval folk ballad


 * Ballads tell stories of love, adventure, and disaster


 * This is a disturbing ballad of two ravens planning their feast on a slain knight who lived a difficult life, left to rot in the woods


 * Death before age 35 was normal in that time period because all the knights would kill each other.


 * The only ones that knew he was laying dead were his “hawk, his hound, and his lady fair.”
 * His lady left him for another mate
 * His hound has left him to hunt
 * His hawk also him


 * The poem is about the slain knight and how nobody cares about him and the birds will use his body for resources.
 * “Wi’ ae lock out his golden hair We’ll theek our nest when it grows bare.” (Line 15, pg 194)
 * “O’er his white banes, when they are bare, The wind shall blaw for evermair.” (line 19, pg 194)

QUESTIONS

What do the descriptions of the knight’s hair and the wind blowing across his bare bones suggest about death?