"Any similarity between foreign ballads and those in English is down to translation by quite literate people"
If you read Gerould you'll find that this most certainly is not the case (unless you are prepared to dismiss his scholarship out of hand, that seems to be very fashionable anong the 'New Agers'
Have you any firm evidence for this?
If you haven't you forgot to put in the (now very necessary) IOM
Jim