Insane,
As your name suggests, you are obviously on a different plane to the rest of us. As a story-teller you have a vivid imagination, and so you should, but traditional ballads tell a simple straightforward story and any powerful imagery is often an interloper inserted at some point by someone like yourself. No doubt your tales contain 'various & richly complex levels of meaning & experience that ultimately only the listener might ever become aware of, and even then not necessarily on a conscious level.' but the vast majority of traditional ballads do not! The Duke's daughter in 'The Cruel Mother' meets up with the ghosts of her 2 murdered infants and without any surprise or narrator's comments she accepts their condemning of her to hell in compliance with contemporary beliefs.