Ballads have been around for a very long time and are a traditional form of oral entertainment that was widely used in the earlier centuries and is still used today. A ballad is a folk song that tells a story and no two people sing the song the same way. Therefore there are different versions or variants of certain ballads. The variants have similarities as well as differences between them and the original ballad. An example of two ballad variants is "The Three Ravens" ("TTR") and "The Twa Corbies" ("TTC"). These two ballads are different in many ways, however they also have some similar aspects to them. "TTR" deals more with how people stand by each other and their fears of abandonment and failure. Where as "TTC", although it also deals with some of these ideas, it is gruesome and more tragic. "TTC" is a sarcastic and appalling version of the ballad "TTR". .
The slain knight is the main character in both variants of the ballad. In both poems the knight has three companions: a hound, a hawk, and a fallow doe. The "fallow doe" metaphorically represents a lady who is in love with him. She is now dead but the doe represents her soul. However, in "TTR" the hound, hawk and lady show that they care for the knight as they stand over him and grieve his death. They protect him from the hungry vultures. The vultures see that the knight was a well-respected and honorable person and therefore they do not eat him. In "TTC", the hound and hawk are both not around and the lady has found another man. Therefore, the knight is unprotected and the vultures are able to eat him. In "TTR" the vultures realize that the knight has people that care about him and in "TTC" the vultures see that nobody cares and no one will notice if they eat him. .
The tone of the poems is very different. "TTR" describes a tragedy and has a melancholy tone, however, there is a sense of hope at the end because the lady buries the knight properly and it ends in a prayer.