From the author....

The term "folk process" is shorthand for all the singers of all the versions who have altered the song over time to their taste/to their memory's limitations/to the spur of the moment. No assumption of indefensible historical process, no reason to jump down anyone's throat, just two words instead of 40. You have a better term for that process, please feel free to suggest it.

This new blog, where the article resides, is a series of "appreciations" of various cultural items. Not all readers will be familiar with Child ballads, any more than all will be familiar with Greek epic or Scandinavian fiddle music or the field sports. I'm sure the experienced folks here can overlook the necessity to provide some context for civilian visitors. I find this specific version particularly nice, for the reasons I outlined, and wanted to share why it works for me. I mentioned the article here in this forum because I though it might be of some interest, but it's intended for a more general audience.

I will be doing articles about other ballads from time to time, to illustrate other points (e.g., Creeping Jane and her "lily-white hoof" as a comic version of an oral-formulaic line).

For the person who inquired about the audio clip, I own the LP and I believe this falls under "fair use", just like quoting a poem. If it were in print, I would point readers to a place to buy it.

By the way, Musgrave is not necessarily of a different social class. He has lands, a horse, and (especially significant) a hawk, so he is almost certainly gentry.

One interesting item I didn't write about is the persistence of the look from Lady Barnard "as bright as the summer's sun". It makes me wonder what the rhetoric was for this in Marie de France, for example, in similar circumstances; is this a cliched phrase from a couple of hundred years prior to the ballads? I don't have my Arthurian and Courtly Love books to hand to look it up.