I saw that title and I said to myself that has to be a CS thread...

All Traditional Songs & Ballary deal in archetypes on a variety of levels which, even in the learning of, open up access to the inner-cultural vistas that inspired them. In relearning (for example) Butter and Cheese and All last year I was subject to visions and journeyings as though by way of re-initiation into the inner mysteries that underlie the archetypal narrative. The end is, of course, as you suggest, the channelling of such archetypes though the performance for both audience and performer. Through performance we realise a deeper level of personal / collective catharsis which is the function & purpose each song, which is a vehicle for ritual / ceremonial drama and profound magickal transformation and potency.

Narrative is determined by inner necessity finding collective experience by way of any given tradition, in this case that of the continuum of English Language Folk Song which is born from the collective subconscious dreaming as manifest through the idiosyncratic genius of the individual song-makers & singers - Shamans all!