Ok Lighter, point taken. Michael is right, it's not a hundred percent clear. I had presumed (wrongly?) that the original thread concerned the Child collection itself. If we're going to admit other ballads alluded to in that collection then maybe we should also look at stuff he didn't include? In which case a serious contender is 'Polly Vaughan'. This is a story so persistent that, apart from the ballads of Europe, it also has its place in Japanese Noh theatre and is a basic story in the dreamings of the indigenous Australians and you don't get a lot older than that.