The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #143474 Message #3312297
Posted By: Steve Gardham
23-Feb-12 - 04:20 PM
Thread Name: Incest ballads (songs)
Subject: RE: Incest ballads
Brian,
'Probably' is about as far as you can go with these things, but I certainly wouldn't argue with what you say. I have seen somewhere an analysis line by line of all versions of 13. Might be in the recent Journals. I'll have a look.
One way to analyse all of these related ballads is to take away all of the material they have in common and look at what's left in each one. The movement of whole sequences of stanzas (motifs) from one ballad to another is quite common. Broadside hacks used it and the antiquarians used it to beef up their versions. During the early 19th century and probably earlier it seems to have been the norm. It must have happened in oral tradition as well.