Further thoughts on the MacColl/Authenticity issue.

The foundation stone of English Literature is a poem called "Beowulf". Scholars estimate that it was composed in East Anglia sometime after 600 (that's 600 AD, or if you want to be PC, 600 CE), and first written down sometime after 700. The oldest surviving manuscript copy (probably) dates from around 1,000.

I like to imagine that when the original bard gave the first public performance of Beowulf, there was a proto-MacColl in the audience who bellowed:

"How dare you - a mere Anglo-Saxon, and probably a Mercian judging by your dialect – appropriate the story of a Swedish hero who dispatched a Danish serial killer three centuries ago?   This shows gross disrespect to all Swedes and Danes, as well as betraying a shameful lack of interest in your own indigenous folklore. Furthermore, the stringed instrument upon which you accompany your recitation is highly untraditional, and you play it (very badly) in a style which is totally inauthentic. Shame on you!"

Or soemthing like that. But fortunately, the bard ignored him.

Wassail!