Mikefule, what you fail do understand is that folk songs were never composed by anybody.

They just came into existence mysteriously, ethereally, one day they didn't exist and the next day everybody was singing them.

It's a bit like the opening scene in "2001" when the apes wake up one morning and find this big black obelisk standing in front of them.

That's the same as folk songs, they didn't get composed, they just appeared out of nowhere.