Ballads Used in Literature

Subject: Ballads Used in Literature
From: nonie
Date: 18 Dec 97 - 02:57 PM

I know it's slightly off-topic, but I'm increasingly fascinated by the use of traditional ballads in modern fiction.

Ellis Peters has a wonderful murder mystery set at a folk seminar, titled BLACK IS THE COLOR OF MY TRUE LOVE'S HEART and echoing the plot of Gil Morris/Childe Maurice.

Also in mysteries, there's the Appalachian Ballad series, so far comprised of IF EVER I RETURN, PRETTY PEGGY-O; THE HANGMAN'S BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER; SHE WALKS THESE HILLS; and THE ROSEWOOD CASKET. They're set in the modern era, in a small town in the Appalachians, with a reluctant sheriff, trailer trash, ghosts, corporate pollution, a wisewoman, a lethal flood, a Vietnam veteran, a missing child...Unlike the author's other work, these are serious novels, deeply human and moving.

"Thomas the Rhymer" is popular enough I can't think of all the spinoffs, but Ellen Kushner has a nice down-to-earth one by the same title.

"Tam Lin" is also common. My favorite is by Pamela Dean, whose novel by that title is mostly a memoir of her days at Cornell, but with increasingly ominous overtones of the Tam Lin story and a dangerous elf-queen in the Classics Department. Hilarious and touching.

My favorite for obscurity, though, is Greer Ilene Gilman's MOONWISE, which along with other ballad echoes uses tropes from the tale of the wife who couldn't give birth and the wax babe her husband made to startle her mother into revealing the evil spells she'd cast.

Anyone else have favorites?

Subject: RE: Ballads Used in Literature
From: Bert
Date: 18 Dec 97 - 03:20 PM

When I was a kid the BBC had childrens' programs on steam radio about "The High Barbaree" and "Sweet Polly Oliver" and on TV had a series about an Italian boy and a donkey where the theme was a song to the tune of "The Neapolitan Tarantella"

Subject: RE: Ballads Used in Literature
From: Nonie Rider
Date: 18 Dec 97 - 06:21 PM

I forgot to add the silliest science-fiction one: Jayge Carr's book LEVIATHAN'S DEEP has ballad chapter headings, with the land-dweller lyrics replaced with nautical ones. Stuff like:

Go rig for me the foam-white ship,
Go rig for me the brown;
Go rig for me the fastest ship
That ever sailed to town.

Subject: RE: Ballads Used in Literature
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 18 Dec 97 - 10:04 PM

Charles Frazier's current best-seller COLD MOUNTAIN contains references to and quotes from several ballads, including the Twa/Three Corbies, and Fair Margaret and Sweet William. There's a chapter entitled "Bride Bed Full of Blood", a quote from that last ballad. And there arelots of fiddle tunes. The novel is set in North Carolina during the American Civil War/War Between the States. Period music figures prominently throughout, and one character in particular becomes an expert fiddler, with much discussion on the ability of a good folk song or tune to move the listener's mind to a higher plane.

Subject: RE: Ballads Used in Literature
From: Moira Cameron
Date: 23 Dec 97 - 02:23 PM

One of my favourite Canadian author's, Charles de Lint, uses folk motifs and stories in his fantasy novels. He is a folk musician on the side, and uses his extensive knowledge of traditional music in his stories.

Subject: RE: Ballads Used in Literature
From: Jen
Date: 23 Dec 97 - 11:04 PM

Yes! Charles De Lint! I was about to say he used folklore in his stories, so does Terri Windling, Tim Powers, and James Blaylock! By the way,Moira,did you know he had a mailing list?

Jen

Subject: RE: Ballads Used in Literature
From: rastrelnikov
Date: 24 Dec 97 - 02:53 AM

Charles plays celtic music (mostly) at Nicks pub on Thursdays here in Ottawa. That's a night I go to a more vocally oriented jam than Charles'.

Another speculative fiction writer, Gene Wolfe, set one of his novels in the world of the peasants mentioned in Good King Wenceslas. I didn't read it very critically -- I'm sure it's heaps less well researched than the wonderful 'Cold Mountain' -- but still, I found it fascinating to read as gradually I realized where the setting came from (I read books on recommendation only, and NEVER read back cover blurbs). Yep, St. Anges fountain was the giveaway.

Subject: RE: Ballads Used in Literature
From: Jen
Date: 03 Jan 98 - 05:30 PM

I found another one. Manly Wade Wellman used Appalachian Folklore and Ballads in his Silver John series. Very good books if you can find them!

Jen

Subject: RE: Ballads Used in Literature
From: Martin Ryan
Date: 05 Jan 98 - 07:48 PM

Nonie: It depends what you mean by "modern"! If we started at Joyce.....!

Regards

Subject: RE: the ballad of little liza
From: wjmcl54
Date: 06 Jan 98 - 06:56 PM

the ballad of little liza goes something like this little liza loves you honey little liza loves you loves you in the springtime and the fall little liza loves you honey little liza loves you loves you the best of all. can you tell me who wrote this ballad and where i can get a copy of it?

Subject: RE: Ballads Used in Literature
From: judy
Date: 07 Jan 98 - 02:01 AM

YE FAIR AND TENDER LADIES by a woman author (of course I can't remember her name) who lives in North Carolina and writes about people in the Appalachian (?) mountains

judy

Subject: RE: Ballads Used in Literature
From: Jerry Friedman
Date: 07 Jan 98 - 03:36 PM

I have to plug Steven Brust here. He's one of my favorite sf writers, and also a folk and rock musician in Minneapolis. His novel Broke Down Palace (which is okay) is set in the kingdom of Fennario (and all the place names are Hungarian translations of Grateful Dead titles), and the hero of his most successful series, Vlad Taltos, is a Fennarian living elsewhere. (The Vlad Taltos books start off fun and get excellent.)

Of most interest to readers of this file might be Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grill, the main characters of which are folk musicians. The plot may have a hole or two, but I really liked the characters and what they did. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll fall down, it'll change your life.

Subject: RE: Ballads Used in Literature
From: Jen
Date: 07 Jan 98 - 06:59 PM

Good book, Jerry!

jen

Subject: RE: Ballads Used in Literature
From: rich-joy
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 04:45 AM

Are 'catters familiar with artist Charles Vess's comic book series on BALLADS???

These have just been reprinted into one lovely hardcover volume by Green Man Press and include Ballad re-tellings by such authors as :
De Lint, Gaiman, Yolen, McCrumb, Bull, Smith, Sherman, Vess, Snyder, Lee , and Smith - with the introduction by Terri Windling and illustrations by Charles Vess.

: check it out.

Cheers! R-J

Subject: RE: Ballads Used in Literature
From: belter
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 05:06 PM

Fantasy novelist Mercedes Lackey has a series of books w/ titles from the lyrics to Tom of Bedlam. ie. "Knight of Goats and Shadows", "Spirit White As Lighting". The main character is a bard. Big surprise there. She's also been known to write the folksongs of the world she's writing in.

Subject: RE: Ballads Used in Literature
From: Gypsy
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 09:28 PM

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! i think you mean GHOSTS and shadows! But having read the books,like the imagery it presents. She also did another set of bard books, set further back in time. These are the 'urban' bards.
T'enny rate, lets also remember James Michener, who used ballads in alot of his books. Found out about child ballads from one of his books. And the immortal, Lasca........

Subject: RE: Ballads Used in Literature
From: jaze
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 09:38 PM

The Drifters- by James Michener is the one with a folksinger who does Child Ballads. I'll have to read that one again. Along with all the others mentioned. Thanks

Subject: RE: Ballads Used in Literature
From: John C.
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 02:24 PM

One of Poul Anderson's stories, 'Arsenal Port' (Fantasy And Science Fiction, April 1965) features the words to, 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home' ("the cruel old Irish original" as Anderson describes it in the story):

"-Ye haven't an arm and ye haven't a leg,
Ye're an eyeless, noseless, chickenless egg.
Ye'll have to be put in a bowl to beg.
Och, Johnny, I hardly knew ye."

I remember reading those appalling words at an impressionable age and they shocked me and stuck in my mind. Just a couple of years later I heard someone sing them at my local Folk Club.
Funnily enough it's probably years since I thought about the song or the story - the thread prompted me to dig out the original magazine to convince myself that I hadn't dreamed it (naturally the story wasn't in the issue that I thought it was!).

Subject: RE: Ballads Used in Literature
From: GUEST,Dr John H.Watson
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 02:29 PM

Try 'Crowner and Justice' by Barrie Roberts, which takes the title from 'The Berkshire Tragedy' and incorporates 'She Moved Through the Fair', or the same author's 'Bad Penny Blues'; which contains rewrite of 'Jamie Raeburn'.

Subject: RE: Ballads Used in Literature
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 04:04 PM

John Steinbeck used some of the words to "Lord Randal" in Cannery Row. I think it's sung by Mac and the Boys.

SRS

Subject: RE: Ballads Used in Literature
From: GUEST,Cumbrian
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 05:33 PM

I would strongly recommend Andrew Greig's "When they laid bare" if you want to read a very atmospheric modern day Scottish Border tale, this story being woven around "The Twa Corbies" and "Barbera Allen".
The novel is set very much in the present, with plenty of dark foreboding, but makes constant reference to the Border Ballads at their phsycologically disturbing and blood thirsty best.
I remember a production being staged during Celtic Connections a couple of years ago which celebrated the ballads woven into the book.
Another plus is that, at his best Andrew Greig is a superb writer of contemporary Scottish fiction

Subject: RE: Ballads Used in Literature
From: belter
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 06:44 PM

Sorry for the misspelling, which the spell checker didn't catch.

Another interesting book was "Bretta Martyn" by L Neil Smith. It's a sequel to "Henry Martyn" wich I haven't read, but presumably is an allusion to the the child ballad. Each chapter of "Bretta Martyn" is introduced with a verse of a song that is recognizably the cruel sister child ballad, but has been altered to set it in the space fairing world of the story.

Subject: RE: Ballads Used in Literature
From: GUEST,nickr90
Date: 01 Dec 04 - 01:46 PM

Joseph O'Connor runs 'Arthur McBride' through his Star of the Sea to great effect speculating on its composition.