The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #131826   Message #2978405
Posted By: Brian Peters
02-Sep-10 - 09:27 AM
Thread Name: Child Ballads survived in oral trad.
Subject: RE: Child Ballads survived in oral trad.
Well, I just did a survey of the popularity of nos. 1 - 100, based on the number of examples in Bronson (who, as I said, doesn't have all the info but does give us a representative sample).

Top of the Pops is, of course, Barbara Allen (a whopping 198 examples), followed by Lord Thomas & Fair Ellender (147), Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight ( = Outlandish Knight: 141), Young Beichan ( = Lord Bateman: 112), Lord Randal (103).

In the next category (50+ examples) come The Elfin Knight ( = Cambric Shirt), Two Sisters, Cruel Mother, Fair Margaret and Sweet William, Lord Lovel, Wife of Usher's Well, Little Musgrave, and Maid Freed from the Gallows ( = Prickly Bush).

Many of the above owe their popularity to North America; some - like Young Hunting - had pretty well died out in Britain by the end of the 19th century, but flourished over there well into the 20th. Whether that's because isolated mountain and maritime communities hung on to their traditions more tenaciously, or because of other factors like broadsides etc., would be an interesting matter to study. Apparently the popularity in the Appalachians of Child 243 (The Demon Lover) in its 'House Carpenter' variant owes a lot to a New York-printed broadside.

The 10 - 50 bracket includes False Knight on the Road, Earl Brand, Edward, Hind Horn, Sir Lionel ( = Bangum), Bonnie Annie ( = Banks of Green Willow), Three Ravens, Broomfield Hill, Two Magicians (but only if you count in 'Hares on the Mountain'), King John and the Bishop, Captain Wedderburn, The Two Borthers (not the same ballad as 'Edward'), Cherry Tree Carol, Dives & Lazarus, Sir Patrick Spens, Lady Maisry, Young Hunting, Lass of Roch Royal, Sweet William's Ghost, Unquiet Grave, George Collins, Lowlands of Holland, Lamkin, Johnny Scot and Willie O' Winesbury.

There's a good handful with just one or two examples collected with tunes (usually older Scots versions), and the ones with no singing tradition that Bronson could find were Erlinton, Leesome Brand, The Maid and the Palmer (but see John Reilly's version), Judas, Burd Ellen & Young Tamlane, The Boy and the Mantle, King Arthur and the Duke of Cornwall, Alison Gross, Laily Worm, Young Andrew, The Bonny Hind, Sir Aldingar, King Estmere, Willie & Lady Maisry, The Bent Sae Brown, Old Robin of Portingale, The Bonny Birdy, Price Robert and Fair Mary of Wallington. You wan't have heard too many of those in the folk revival, and those which you have heard will have been sung to made-up or borrowed tunes.

And those of us who have thrilled to the magic spells of 'Willie's Lady' and the ghost-busting heroics of 'King Henry' need to keep in mind that these ballads rest essentially on a single source - the 18th Century professor's daughter Anna Brown of Falkland, Aberdeenshire, who took delight in magical ballads and had a remarkable memory for rare ones. The fact is that ballad performers in the folk revival have often made their choices on the basis of a good (and preferably wild and woolly) storyline, rather than popularity in oral tradition.

Finally, I'm not surprised that Dave MacKenzie learned #274 from his father - that ballad has gone into all sorts of places, including the repertoire of blues and cajun musicians, and has kept turning up in (usually very rude) rugby-song type versions until quite recently.