The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #138546   Message #3171850
Posted By: Brian Peters
17-Jun-11 - 05:39 AM
Thread Name: Child Ballads about wars
Subject: RE: Child Ballads about wars
'Motif Index of the Child Corpus' lists the following under 'war':

92 B; 108; 148; 158; 159; 161; 162; 163; 163; 164; 166; 167; 168; 172; 175; 198; 202; 205; 206; 250; 266; 286; 287; 288; 305

Many of these deal with the protracted warfare between the Scots and the English in the Border regions, notably 161 (The Battle of Otterburn) and 162 (The Hunting of the Cheviot), which tell the tale of the same battle from opposite perspectives. 164 deals with war between England and France, and 288, between England and Germany.

The above list includes three ballads - 167 (Sir Andrew Barton), 250 (Henry Martin), and 287 (Captain Ward and the Rainbow) - generally considered pirate ballads, but in which an English / Scots agenda is discernable.

It has to be said that a lot of those ballads are pretty obscure -rare in tradition and seldom sung in the folk revival. The more familiar ones include 92 (Bonny Bee Hom = Lowlands of Holland) and 286 (Sweet Trinity = Golden Vanity).

Of course there is plenty of relevant material outside the Child Ballads.