Hi,

Now that the songs and ballads collected by James Madison Carpenter (1888-1984) of Mississippi are available online at the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (hereafter 'VWML') this is an opportunity to study ballads he collected from England and Scotland, come of which date back to the mid-1800s (collected between 1928-1935). Also included are his Child ballad collected mostly in North Carolina between 1937 and 1941 by Carpenter and his Duke University students.

Here's a link to the Collection: https://www.vwml.org/search?q=James%20Madison%20Carpenter&is=1 It includes 5,018 entries some of them photos.

This is a study of specifically of The James Madison Carpenter Collection "Child ballads." In addition I would like to include older materials (broadsides, printed ballads, and other early sources) that may not have been available to F. J. Child when he was writing The English and Scottish Popular Ballads" with "305 Ballad Types" between c.1882-1898.

I welcome any discussion and posts of materials by such legendary informants as Bell Duncan, Alexander Robb, and others. Just so there is some order I'd like to start with Child 1 "Riddles Wisely Expounded" or in the US the ballad is known most commonly as "The Devil's Nine Questions" and work through each ballad in order.

The focus is on British ballads here, but US ballads from the Carpenter Collection are included.

TY

Richie