Hi Steve!

You said "The spurious 'Edward' ..."

Tell me more. Why is that any more spurious than a lot of other ballads that first appeared around the same time?

And have you read the Archer book? He builds his thesis on a number of points, but the general idea is to look at which elements appear in which versions. He also notes that the British versions seem to be set in the same landscape of lords and ladies with the their hawks, hounds etc as many other ballads, while the Scandinavian ones seem more about farmers.