Hi Bob, If it is the case that a substantial number of versions of the shorter ballad have significant crossover with the old ballad, then a detailed study is needed. Is it possible that some versions of HM have been deliberately crossed with SAB within the last 2 and a half centuries? There are plenty of examples of mixing of ballads by, shall we say, literate people, and then those mixtures have gone into oral tradition. Scottish versions of The Cruel Mother spring to mind, having been deliberately added to from The Maid and the Palmer.
|