If this isn't hijacking the topic, however, I'd like to know more about the shadier area of TUNES in traditional song. Something I've never understood.

For example, I sing "Willie of the Winsbury" to a tune I know from versions by Sweeney's Men and Anne Briggs. I know it's a Child ballad, but aren't the Child ballads just lyrics? Did Child compile tunes as well?

I have no absolutely no idea whether the tunes of various old ballads I know and love were composed entirely by the musicians whose versions I know best or whether they really are ancient public domain melodies, as it were.

To put it another way, if I were to fit a tune to one of, say, Percy's Reliques (which to my knowledge are also ballads with no tunes attached) then someone in theory ought to owe me a royalty if they covered it on an album? After all, they would have chosen to use the tune I came up with, rather than writing their own one.

I keep meaning to start a thread asking for suggestions of good sources of tune-free ballads and lyrics.