"The Three Ravens" is an English folk ballad, printed in the song book Melismata compiled by Thomas Ravenscroft and published in 1611, but it is perhaps older than that. Newer versions were recorded right up through the 19th century. Francis James Child recorded several versions in his Child Ballads.
"The Twa Corbies", illustration by Arthur Rackham to Some British Ballads
The Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Child's studies of them were published as The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. The tunes of most of the ballads were collected and published by Bertrand Harris Bronson in and around the 1960s.
8 Volume collection of Francis Child English & Scottish Ballads, 1860
Francis Child English & Scottish Ballads, 1860, Vol 1
The 1904 Houghton Mifflin edition of Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads
Francis James Child collected the words to over 300 British folk ballads.