WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THIS PRINT … Alexander Cunningham traveled the Highlands in the 1820’s recording folk ballads, including this version of the “Twa Corbies,” in which the corbies (ravens) aren’t passive about waiting for death to make their meal, but actively bring about the sailor’s deaths. James VI of Scotland, in 1589, was sailing to Denmark to meet his bride when a storm forced his ship back to shore. He was convinced it was the work of witches intent on killing him, and this led to the North Berwick witch trials in with approx. 70 “witches” were tortured and put to death. One of the charges against the accused was that they would turn themselves into ravens. I speculate that this additional verse, which is not included in Scott’s 1803 version of the “Twa Corbies,” is somehow a memory of the witch trials. James would go on to write his famous book on witches, Daemonologie, after ascending to the thrones of both Scotland & England upon the death of Elizabeth I in 1603.
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The Sign of the Two Ravens 