Folk or Traditional Folk or Traditional balladballad

XV – XVI CENTURIES

Anonymous oral formAnonymous oral form which appears in the late Middle Ages throughout Europe.Europe.

The oral modeoral mode makes the sound sound aspectaspect very importantimportant for the ballad singer because:

in order to memorizememorize the ballad singers can only make use of sound sound devicesdevices such as:

1.1. Rhyme Rhyme (Dominant rhyme scheme ABCB or ABAB)

2.2. Stress PatternStress Pattern (Alternation of 4 stress lines and 3 stress lines)

3.3. RepetitionRepetition of keywords, phrases, whole lines and refrains

4.4. AlliterationAlliteration

ThemesThemesBallads are usually about lovelove which may be: 1.1. erotic love,erotic love, like in “Elfin Knight”, a ballad

describing the courting between a married courting between a married man and a girlman and a girl, or

2.2. tragic love,tragic love, like in “Lady Diamond”, where a a kitchen boy is murdered by the king’s men kitchen boy is murdered by the king’s men because of his love for the king’s daughterbecause of his love for the king’s daughter. In the end the king’s daughter herself dies because of her sorrow for the loss of her true love;

• magic and the supernaturalmagic and the supernatural are other typical themes of medieval ballads, see for example the ballad “Cruel sister” where we are told the story the story ofof a young girl who is killed by her sister for a young girl who is killed by her sister for jealousyjealousy, but the crime is revealed on her wedding day by a magic harp made of the bones of the victim’s breast and three locks of her hair.

The language of the BalladThe language of the Ballad Large use of simple syntactic structuressimple syntactic structures (there are no subordinate clauses ) simple lexissimple lexis mainly:a.a. monosyllabic wordsmonosyllabic words and concrete nounsconcrete nouns of

Anglo-Saxon origin.Anglo-Saxon origin. a.a. stock phrasesstock phrases (= a fixed set of wordsa fixed set of words to describe

someone or something: e.g. “fair pretty maidfair pretty maid” is used in “Geordie” to refer to the female character; and“my milk-white horsemy milk-white horse” is used to refer to her horse).

formulaeformulae (= Idea or concept expressed in identical or almost identical words: e.g. in the ballad “Geordie”, in the first two lines of the second stanza, to express desperate hurry Geordie’s wife says: “Come bridle me my milk-white horse, come bridle me my pony”

Narrative techniqueThe story is usually told by a narratornarrator and

through the voice of one of the charactersthe voice of one of the characters involved in the story,

this implies that dialoguedialogue is largely used.Authorship

The originsorigins of this anonymous poetic form are a mysterymystery;

Questions Questions on Who Who exactly composed the ballads, or wherewhere and whenwhen these were composed remain unanswered;

Something more may be said about the area the area where the English ballads were composedwhere the English ballads were composed thanks to the fact that many of them contain a lot of words of Scottish originwords of Scottish origin, this makes us think that they were probably composedprobably composed in an area on the border between England and on the border between England and ScotlandScotland.

AudienceAudience

Ballads were intended for the common intended for the common peoplepeople who lived in the villagesin the villages, this is the reason why they mainly deal with events and situations in the everyday life of common people.

Source of ballad textsThe existence of many versionsmany versions of the

same balladsame ballad can be easily explained by the fact that ballads were mainly an oral forman oral form and even if ballad singers had exceptional memories, they did not aim at reproducing reproducing a text exactlya text exactly, they simply aimed at telling telling old stories in the old traditional way.old stories in the old traditional way.

The Bonny SwansThe Bonny SwansA (1) ____________ there lived in the (2) ____________ countryA hey ho bonny oAnd he had (3) ____________ one, two, threeThe swans (4) ____________ so bonny oThese daughters they (5) ____________ by the river’s

brimA hey ho bonny oThe eldest (6) ____________ the youngest in The swans swim so bonny oOh sister, oh sister , pray (7) ____________ me your hand With a hey ho a bonny oAnd I will give you (8) ____________ and landthe swans swim so bonny oI’ll give you neither hand nor (9) ____________ with a hey ho a bonny o

The Bonny SwansThe Bonny Swans

(10) ____________ you give me your own true (11) ____________ the swans swim so bonny oSometimes she (12) ____________ , sometimes she swamwith a hey ho a bonny o (13) ____________ she came to miller’s dam the swans swim so bonny oThe miller’s daughter, (14) ____________ in red with a hey ho a bonny oShe went for some (15) ____________ to make some bread the swans swim so bonny oOh father, oh daddy, here swims a (16) ____________ with a hey ho a bonny o It’s very like a gentle (17) ____________ the swans swim so bonny oThey placed her on the (18) ____________ to dry

The Bonny SwansThe Bonny Swanswith a hey ho a bonny oThere came a harper (19) ____________ bythe swans swim so bonny oHe made harp pins of her (20) ____________ fairwith a hey ho a bonny oHe made harp (21) ____________ of her golden hairthe swans swim so bonny oHe made a harp of her (22) ____________ bone with a hey ho a bonny oAnd straight it began to (23) ____________ alone the swans swim so bonny oHe (24) ____________ it to her father’s hallwith a hey ho a bonny oAnd there was the (25) ____________ , assembled allthe swans swim so bonny o

The Bonny SwansThe Bonny SwansHe (26) ____________ the harp upon a stone with a hey ho a bonny oAnd straight it began to play alonethe swans swim so bonny oAnd there does (27) ____________ my father the Kingwith a hey ho a bonny oAnd (28) ____________ sit my mother the Queenthe swans swim so bonny oAnd there does sit my (29) ____________ Hughwith a hey ho a bonny oAnd by him (30) ____________ , sweet and truethe swans swim so bonny oAnd there does sit my (31) ____________ sister, Annewith a hey ho a bonny oWho (32) ____________ me for the sake of a manthe swans swim so bonny o