Tzu>>>>>did not Child did find what he thought was the 'same' ballad in the tradition of both countries?<<<<<

Of course, they certainly had motifs in common and often had the same plot and not just between 2 countries, some are pan-European, But translation from one language to another suggests (to me at least) a level of sophistication (dare I say it, by literate people!). IMO, IMO, IMO...…


Tzu, No-one here to the best of my knowledge has criticised the bulk of the contribution of the likes of Child, Sharp, Gerould, Lloyd et al. The problem is that some here would seem to want to worship their contribution like a religion, which IMO is ridiculous. We now have access to unprecedented knowledge and for those people to have got everything right, well they really would have been deities.