Articles & Books about Child and the Child Ballads
[See articles attached (left hand column)]
CONTENTS:
1) Grundtvig's Index B of English and Scottish Ballad
2) William Macmath and F. J. Child
3) Scott, Jamieson and the New 'Minstrelsy'
4) The Interdependence of Ballad Tunes and Texts
5) Professor Child and the Ballad- Hart 1906
6) Notes on Ballad Origins- Lang 1903
7) English and Scottish Popular Ballads of Francis J. Child
8) Veritable Dunghills: Professor Child and the Broadside
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Grant McDonald, “A Study of Selected Folk-Songs of Southern Missouri” Master thesis 1939.
Lynn Ellis Hummel, "Ozark Folk songs" Thesis, Univ. of Missouri, 1936
The Heritage and Folk Music of Cades Cove, Tennessee by Margaret Elisabeth Gamble, published 1947
Joseph Decosimo,
Cumberland Trail State Park Manager Bob Fulcher.
The Cumberland Trail Conference
409 Thurman Ave, Suite 102
Crossville, Tennessee 38555
ctcoffice2014@gmail.com
931-456-6259
Justin P. Wilson
Bob Fulcher
Park Manager
Cumberland Trail State Scenic Trail State Park
220 Park Road
Caryville, TN 37714-3807
423-566-2229 office
865-207-0060 cell
865-457-4065 home
423-566-2290 fax
bobby.fulcher@tn.gov
Cumberland Trail Inc
409 Thurman Ave Suite 102
Crossville, Tennessee 38555
Folk-songs of America (National Service Bureau publication) by Robert Winslow Gordon (1938) ABOUT THE BOOK -- A 110 page WPA publication, bound in soft paper. 15 Chapters and an Index. ABOUT THE CONTENT -- This reprints in full the R.W. Gordon articles on American folk songs that originally appeared in abridged from in the New York Times Sunday Magazine in the early 1930's. CHAPTERS OF THIS BOOK -- "Some Mountain Songs from North Carolina," "Negro Work Songs from Georgia," "Negro Spirituals from Georgia," "Negro Shouts from Georgia," "Negro Chants," "Outlaw Songs," "Jailhouse Songs" "Lumberjack Songs," "Songs of the Pioneers," "Fiddle Songs," and others.
Some American Variants of Child Ballads: a Study in Variation;
Jane Irene Zielonko, Jane Irene Zielonko - 1945
Checklist Ballads Burton- http://utpress.org/downloads/9781572336681/Ballad_checklist.pdf
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The James Taylor Adams Collection, with the only copies of thousands of items that the WPA did not publish, is now archived at University of Virginia’s College at Wise (formerly Clinch Valley College) and the Blue Ridge Institute at Ferrum College.
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Books I do not have, needed for research
A Heritage of (Folk) Songs by Carrie B. Grover and Ann L. Griggs (Jun 1977) Carrie Grover, a Maine woman who collected and learned the songs of her Nova Scotia family and childhood. She published these in her book A Heritage of Songs (Norwood, PA, Norwood Editions, 1973).
Doucette, Laurel, and Colin Quigley. “The Child Ballad in Canada: A Survey"
Manny & Wilson, Songs of the Miramichi (1968) pp.206-207
Ives, Drive Dull Care Away (1999) pp.72-73
unpublished materials---
"Traditional Ballads and Songs of Eastern North Carolina" #04019, Series: "3. Writings" Folder 20a-20e
Carbon typescript of Lucy Cobb's master's thesis.
Mason, Robert. “Folk-Songs and Folk-Tales of Cannon County, Tennessee.” Peabody College, 1939.
Miller, Minnie. “Tom Clarence Ashley: An Appalachian Folk Musician.” M.A.. thesis. East Tennessee State University, 1973.
Owens, Bess Alice. “Some Unpublished Folk-Songs of the Cumberlands.” M.A. thesis. Peabody College, 1930.
Haun, Mildred. “Cocke County Ballads and Songs.” M.A. thesis. Peabody College, 1937.
Greene, Maude. “Folklore of Shelby County, Tennessee.” M.A. thesis. Peabody College, 1940.
Gannaway, Mary Ann. “The Singing Games of the Cumberland Mountains in Tennessee.” M.A. thesis. Peabody College, 1935.
Doran, Edwina B. “Folklore in White County, Tennessee.” Ph.D. dissertation. Peabody College, 1969.
Duncan, Ruby. “Ballads and Folk Songs Collected in Northern Hamilton County.” M.A. thesis. University of Tennessee Knoxville, 1939.
Fleming, Jo Lee. “James D. Vaughan, Music Publisher, Lawrenceburg, Tennessee 1912-1964.” Union Theological Seminary in New York City, 1972.
Bandy, Lewis David. “Folklore in Macon County, Tennessee.” M.A. thesis. Peabody College, 1940.The University of Maryland library has an unpublished manuscript by June E. Chance, "Folk Songs from Southern Maryland: Songs Collected from Mrs. G. C. Chance, Gambrills, Anne Arundel County, Maryland," which contains 113 songs without tunes, including Child number 2
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AFC 1971/031: Folk Songs of Florida and Texas / by Mary Elizabeth Buford M.A. thesis, Southern Methodist University, 1941. 219 pages.
Fifty Ballads and Songs from Northwest Arkansas/ by Irene Jones Carlisle Thesis: Texas Christan University, 1952. 178 pgs
Lynn E. Hummel, Ozark Folk-Songs. Master's thesis, University of Missouri, 1936. Pp. 168. Words and music of 116 songs, most of which Hummel collected in southern Missouri.
Haun, Mildred. “Cocke County Ballads and Songs.” M.A. thesis. Peabody College, 1937.
Owens, Bess Alice. “Some Unpublished Folk-Songs of the Cumberlands.” M.A. thesis. Peabody College, 1930."
Duncan, Ruby. "Ballads and Folk Songs Collected in Northern Hamilton County." Master's thesis, University of Tennessee, 1939
Folk-songs and Folk-tales of Cannon County, Tennessee Robert L. Mason - 1939
Herschel Gower, "Traditional Scottish Ballads in the United States," Ph.D. dissertation (Vanderbilt University, 1957), 87-113.
Norman Cazden, "The Story of a Catskill Ballad," New York Folklore Quarterly, VIII (1952), 245-266. [Braes of Yarrow]
"Popular Ballads Recorded in Knoxville, Tenn." by authors Edwin and Mary Kirkland.
The Warbler (Peter Edes, printer), Augusta, Me., 1805. [local version of Broom of the Cowdenknowes (called version II in folk-index) also "Babes in the wood"]
Samuel P. Bayard. Folk Tunes from the Phillips Barry Collection. June, 1942. [A manuscript at Widener Library, Harvard ]
A structural analysis of the American variants of The Gypsy Laddie (Child 200) David Anthony Brownell; Dept. of English, Stanford University, 1967 - Music - 548 pages
The Two Sisters by Paul G. Brewster (1953) Folklore Fellows Communication #147, Helsinki.
Fifty ballads and songs from Northwest Arkansas by Irene Jones Carlisle (1952)
Parler, Arkansas Ballad Book ( An Arkansas ballet book) Mary Celestia Parler - 1975
"A YEAR OF SONG" PINE MOUNTAIN CALENDAR 1952, WITH TWELVE FOLK SONGS FROM THE SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS by Richard, and Nate, Dorothy, Editor Chase and Mary Rogers (1951)
Songs of the Pacific Northwest (rev. ed., Hancock House, [1979] 2007
Mid-America Folklore: Forty-Five Folk Songs Collected From Searcy County [Arkansas] (Fall 2002, Volume 30 Numbers 1 & 2) [Paperback]
"Song Ballads and Other Songs of the Pine Mountain Settlement School" 1923 (one copy) Kentucky Library of Western Kentucky (reprinted once in 1976) [Available online]
'Traditional Texts of "Geordie" in America', Southern Folklore Quarterly, xiii (1949)
Folksongs From Maine (Paperback) by Edward Ives (Editor) 1965
The East Tennessee State University Collection of Folklore: Folksongs II (Paperback) by Thomas G Burton (Editor), Ambrose N. Manning (Editor)
East Tennessee and Western Virginia Mountain Ballads by C. P. Cambiaire (1934)
More Songs of the Hill-Folk: Ten Ballads and Tragic Legends From Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina... by John Jacob Niles (1936)
Dialect of the folk-song by Josiah Henry Combs (1916)
"The Josiah H. Combs Collection of Songs and Rhymes," in: Kentucky Folklore Record, vol. 6, No. 4.
Nine rare traditional ballads from Virginia- Paul Clayton (Worthington) - 1957
fannie Hardy Eckstorm and Phillips Barry-- Macdougall
British Ballads from Maine, Second Series: The Development of Popular Songs with Texts and Airs, Versions of Ballads Included in Francis J. Child's Collection. Edited by Phillips Barry, Fannie H. Eckstorm, and Mary Winslow Smyth. 2011. Maine Folklife Center. 327 pages. ISBN: 978-0-943197-00-5 (hard cover).
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Collections:
Hindman Settlement School Ballads and Folksongs, KYSX269-A, undated Special Collections, Berea College, Berea, Ky.
Appalachian Ballads and Folk Music Collection, KYSX223-A, 1911-1975 Special Collections, Berea College, Berea, Ky.
John Jacob Niles papers, 1900-1981, 1M82M9, Special Collections and Digital Programs, University of Kentucky.
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Professor Child by A. Lang
Folklore, Vol. 7, No. 4 (Dec., 1896), pp. 416-417
OBITUARY.
PROFESSOR CHILD.
THE great American authority on popular ballads, he who did even more for ballads than K6hler for Marchen, died on September 11. Professor Child was born at Cambridge (Massachusetts) in 1825, went to Harvard in 1846, commenced as tutor there, studied later in Germany, and, in 1851, became Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory. In 1876 he took the Chair of English Literature, lecturing in Old English, Chaucer, and Shakespeare.
In I86I Mr. Child published eight volumes of English ballads, omitting The Bonny Hynd, The Baffled Knight, The Jolly Beggar, The Keach in the Creel, and The Earl of Errol. Scott had published the first of these, Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe had printed the last. Probably American modesty stood in Mr. Child's way. Of variants, only "the more important" were given. They were arranged in accordance with "the probable antiquity of the story, not the age of the actual form or language," which has necessarily been modernised in oral recitation. "The most authentic copies " of the texts were selected; but Mr. Child had not then access to many manuscript collections. References to parallel ballads and stories in other than Teutonic languages were comparatively meagre.
In 1882 (so the dedication to Mr. Furnivall is dated) Mr. Child began to publish his new and, as far as possible, exhaustive edition of ballads (Houghton, Mifflin, and Co., Boston). He had been engaged for ten years in stimulating collectors in Scotland, Canada, and the United States. He had obtained the use of MSS., such as Motherwell's, Kinloch's, Jamieson's transcript of Mrs. Brown's, Islay's, and the MSS. at Abbotsford. Looking over those, one day, I was beset by an importunate' temptation to "fake" a ballad or two, have them copied in bad ink on old paper, and thrust them into the mass for the purpose of deceiving Mr. Child. The temptation was resisted. It is superfluous to praise the method, industry, and learning of the great new edition. As the work went on, the editor was enabled to add corrections and fresh variants. Thus I was fortunate enough to be able to rectify the topography of Jamie Teller from notes on a first edition of the Border Minstrelsy at Branxholme Park; for Sir Walter, oddly enough, had gone wrong, deceived by the distribution of the same place-names on Ettrick and Teviot. I think, too, that I nearly, or quite, converted Mr. Child from the Kirkpatrick Sharpe heresy about the late date (1719) of The Queen's Marie. His mind was uncommonly open to facts and argument. In the same way amateurs of ballads everywhere found him a courteous and prompt correspondent. His new edition transcended the old, for his knowledge at least of European ballads and Marchen, for comparative purposes, was vastly extended. Perhaps he had still a good deal to learn about the popular tales and poems of the uncivilised races, which are often valuable for purposes of comparison. There was no other defect in his equipment, except that he might have been better seen in Scottish history. The mystery of "The Maid of Norway," and the strange affair of "The False Maid," are unnoticed in Mr. Child's preface to Sir Patrick Spens. Other examples might be given.
It is understood that Mr. Child had finished his edition before his regretted death; but it does not appear that he had completed an Essay on Popular Ballads in general, their origin and diffusion, a topic full of difficult problems. In England the questions of this branch of folklore have been much neglected; with Mr. Child's completed work before him some scholar should attempt to do what is necessary. Probably Mr. Child may at least have left notes indicating his general conclusions, and one of his pupils may be able to finish his work. It is, indeed, a magnum opus, and one of the chief glories of American scholarship, though produced under great difficulties, caused by the distance from European libraries, and the daily task-work of a teacher. English balladists will of course be anxious to assist, in any way within their power, the labours of the American editor, who may complete "the unfinished window in Aladdin's tower."
A. LANG.
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Early Exchanges on Oral Traditions.
Two Unpublished Letters by Robert Jamieson and Wilhelm Grimm
by Ruth Michaelis-Jena
Folklore, Vol. 86, No. 1 (Spring, 1975), pp. 42-47
Early Exchanges on Oral Traditions
Two unpublished Letters by Robert Jamieson and Wilhelm Grimm
by RUTH MICHAELIS-JENA
AT a time when the international study of folklore in general, and the folk narrative in particular, is taken for granted, it is worthwhile to look back on the early pioneering days.
While Europe was suffering from the Napoleonic Wars and their aftermath, antiquarians, disregarding the difficulties of communication, were forever seeking new contacts which might provide information related to their studies. In that way streams of knowledge flowed from country to country, and scholars gained insight into one another's workshops.
Though maintaining that the tales of their own collection were German or even 'Hessian', the Brothers Grimm did foresee the inevitable interrelation of all narrative research.
The wealth of Scottish tradition had attracted the brothers early. In a letter[1] to Wilhelm of 1812 Jacob wrote: '. . . in a Scottish book I have this afternoon found the tale of the Frog Prince, I believe no other people is so rich in oral tradition . . .'
And the brothers took pains to explore these riches.
In 1813 Wilhelm published three Scottish songs in translation. Two were taken from Scott's Minstrelsy - Lord Randal, and 0 gin my love were yow red rose - the third, The twa brothers, came from Jamieson's Popular Ballads and Songs.
On 4 January, 1814[2] Jacob Grimm wrote from Cassel to Walter Scott at Abbotsford, asking whether he might consult him from time to time on questions concerning the older English and Scottish literature. Jacob complained that the Wars had badly handicapped
their work since books necessary for their researches were
lost in transit; while they had safely received copies of the
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Marmion and The Lady of the
Lake, two precious copies of Sir Tristrem were lost. Would Scott
be good enough to let him, Jacob, know whom he could turn to
for material concerning Scottish oral traditions?
This letter took three months to travel from Cassel to Scotland, and on 29 April, I814[3] Scott replied in, what Jacob called in a
letter to Benecke, an 'ungemein artiger Brief' - an uncommonly courteous letter.[4]
Scott wrote at length, welcoming Jacob's letter, and assuring
him that he was well acquainted with the brothers' work, and no
stranger to 'the rich field of ancient poetry which your country
affords'. In the course of his letter Scott mentioned fellow antiquaries,
one was Henry Weber, 'a Saxon by birth, and an unwearied investigator of the antiquities of England and his native
country'. Weber, Scott thought, might be helpful to the Grimms' researches. And indeed, in spite of spasmodic insanity, Weber did correspond with the brothers until shortly before his death in an asylum at York, in June 1818.
The other antiquary, mentioned by Scott, was Robert Jamieson, with whose work the Grimms were already familiar. A native of
Scotland, Jamieson had, while teaching at Macclesfield, begun a collection of Scottish ballads, a work he continued during a period in the Latvian capital of Riga. When announcing the early completion of his work, in The Scots Magazine Jamieson mentioned his indebtedness to Walter Scott.
His Popular Ballads and Songs were published in 1806.
On his return to Scotland, in 18o8, Jamieson was made, through
Scott's influence, assistant to the depute-clerk registrar at Register
House in Edinburgh. Jamieson had become aware of the affinities
of Scandinavian and Scottish tradition, a circumstance which
occupied Wilhelm Grimm when he came to Scottish ballads and
songs after working on the Danish Kaempe Viser.
Like Scott's Minstrelsy, Jamieson's collection drew attention to
oral tradition. Much of his material came direct from the mouth of
an old woman, Mrs Brown, of Falkland in Fife. In addition to his
Popular Ballads, Jamieson was, together with Weber and Scott,
responsible for Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, from the
earlier Teutonic and Scandinavian Romances, published in Edinburgh
in 1814. This book contained extracts from the Nibelungenlied
and the Eyrbiggia Saga, also translations from old German,
Danish and Icelandic romances, as well as heroic and romantic
ballads.
In Archibald Constable and his Literary Correspondents, a memorial, published by his son, Thomas (3 vols., Edinburgh
1873), Jamieson is described as 'of genial heart and honourable
mind, he thought of himself not more highly than he ought to
think, and was liberal in his esteem and consideration for others.'
In the same work he is quoted as saying that in his summer
vacation he must 'fecht like a Turk and work like a man', to make
up for lost time on his ballad collecting.
He must surely have been a man after Jacob and Wilhelm
Grimm's taste, and a letter[5] - to the best of my knowledge
not published before - shows that the attraction was mutual.
Interesting, too, are the references to Constable whom, unfortunately,
the Grimms did not meet after all.
Register House, Edinburgh, July 28th 1817
Ever since your 'Nursery Tales', and 'Old Danish Heroic Ballads' arrived here, in which you announced your intention of publishing a Collection of Scottish and English Ballads, Mr. Walter Scott and I have been casting about to discoverm eans of opening a correspondence with you, and offering you our best services ( supposing we might be useful),
in furthering your undertaking. Mr. Scott is now in the country; but I
could not let slip so favourable an opportunity as was offered by my
friend Mr. Constable, the bearer of this letter, going to the Continent
with the intention of visiting Cassel; and have accordingly written a few
lines in great haste to assure you of our most hearty good will towards
your learned and praise-worthy labours; and of our readiness to contribute
to their success by every means in our power; explaining difficulties,
from the local advantages we possess; transmitting better copies of
some pieces, which have come to hand since the Collections were
printed; and sending you (as we would have done long ago, if we had
known by what conveyance) a parcel of such things as you cannot conveniently
get in Germany. Should you think proper to make use of our
services, we hope our zeal will satisfy you of the high estimation in
which we hold you and your literary avocations; and in the mean time,
you can concert with Mr. Constable the means of communications,
especially for transmitting a parcel. - Have you any friend in Hamburgh
who would take charge of it for you? - We mean to send you as
speedily as possible, a splendid Quarto Volume of 'Illustrations of
Northern Antiquities', in which you will find Scottish Translations of
many of the Danish Ballads which you have turned so admirably into
German.
As to my friend Mr. Constable, it is enough to have introduced h im to you - you must learn to esteem him by knowing him, which I think I can promise that you will never be sorry for. Among other good qualities, he
is (for so young a man) uncommonly well informed respecting literature
and literary men in this country, which must make his conversation
peculiarly interesting to you, as yours will certainly be to him. - As he
makes but a short stay on the Continent, if you should do me the
honour of writing by him, you may (to be more at ease) write in German,
as the charactera nd languagea re quite familiart o me. I have set you the
example by writing to you in English.
That a confidential communication with this country may be useful
in illustrating our old ballads, you will be sensible from the two following
remarks, which you will readily excuse, as they are made with the
most friendly view. - In your translation of 'O gin my Love, etc.' you
have supposed 'bonny' to be derived from the Lat. or French, and to
mean good; whereas it means 'Beautiful', literallyfair, or white from the
Gaelic 'ban',i n the oblique cases 'bhin' (in Germano rthographyw ahne)
signifying white, and fair; being the same with the Northern ven, voen,
venne, etc. and the old German and Northern fiin, fin, fine, etc. vude,
Venus, venustus, etc. - In 'the twa Brothers', you have translated wall
(English well,) by Thal - It should have been Brunne, a well, spring,
or fountain. - Perhaps you do not know that there is a very good (but
very dear) Dictionary of the Scottish Dialect, by Doctor John Jamieson
of Edinburgh, in 2 Volumes Quarto. I believe it now sells as high as 6
Guineas, or x2 Ducats of your money. - How do the Romances, by
Biisching and Von der Hagen come on? Is there any hope of the
Heldenbuchb eing printed in its genuine state?- - But both my paper
and time are near an end, so I have only room to wish all happiness to
you, and success to your pursuits, and to subscribe myself -
Dear Sir,
very truly yours
Robert Jamieson.
(Spelling and punctuation as in original)
This letter was apparently answered by Wilhelm Grimm in March 1818[6] (shown by note on Jamieson's letter: 'beantw.
10 Mairz 1818'), and the concept for this reply remains in the Grimm Schrank of the Staatsbibliothek, in Berlin, and is published
here for the first time also, I believe.
Sir,
Your esteemed letter of 28 July 17 was received only very belatedly
and what I deplore even more, not by the hand of Mr. Constable whose
acquaintance I looked forward to with pleasure, but by mail from
Frankfurt. It appears that this gentleman had changed h is plans, and did not c ome t o Cassel at all.
It is most gratifyingto me to see the start o f contacts w ith your e steemed self and with Mr. Scott begun in such an amicablem anner.
YourP opularB alladsa nd Songs( Edinb. 1806) and Mr. Scott's M instrelsy of the ScottishB order4 th ed. haveb een in my possessionf or some time. I much value these collections,n ot only for their own
poeticalw orth,b ut equallyf or theira ffinityt o the Danishb alladsa, nd
eveno uro wn Germano nes.O n severaal ccountsa, nd becauseo f other
pressingw ork,I hadt o postponem y intendedt ranslationof them,a nd
now that a translationa,t least in part,b y a FrauS chubarth, as been
publishedI, mustg ive up my plansa ltogetherT. wo translationws ould
not do well in the presents tate of our booktrade(.I n the margin:)
AltschottischLe iederu nd Balladenv on WalterS cott. tlbersetztv on
HenrietteS chubartL. eipzigu nd AltenburgI 8I7. ThereforeI cannot,
at least for the time being, make use of your kind offer of help in this
undertaking, your h elp w ould, h owever,...
(Continued:) But if you will have the kindness of helping me, you
might do so in a closely related field, and without doubt to my greatest
advantage. You must k now t hat w e are preparing a new edition of our
Nursery Tales, and in very many items it will be also a better one,
particularlays manya tale which was only a fragment in the first edition,
or poorly told, will now be supplemented and completed from many
traditions collected since. Now I am convinced that there is no country
where there are still so many nursery tales on the lips of the people as in
Scotland a nd England, and I do not doubt that close and remarkable
affinities w ith German traditions w ill be discovered. If you have any
collections or intend making them, we should b e much obliged to hear of
them. Such information would be pleasing a nd important to us. Perhaps
you, yourself, would feel inclined to publish a collection similar to ours
for your own country. With your valuable notes, such a book could
becomet he most w elcomes upport of our c ollection. The second v olume
of our Deutsche Sagen, the first volume of which you may know, is just
being printed, and will be ready for the Easter Fair. The volume containsa
collection o f material related t o German l egends, f ound i n the
works of historians, such as Tacitus, Jornandes Paulus D iaconus, Gregory
of Tourse &c., also taking into account what later-day G erman romances
and chronicless upply. Many a strangei ncident,p articularlya bout
Charlemagnwe,i ll be foundi n the volumeo, riginatinfgr omt he Heidelberg(
at one timeV aticanm) anuscriptAs. partf romt his we (thati s my
brotherJ acoba ndI ) aree ngagedin a big undertakingth, e editiono f the
remarkablea nd widely diffusede pic of Reinhartt he Fox. Our collection
consists mainly of unpublished material, collected from several manuscripts;
you will see all details from the enclosed prospectus. Here, too,
you can perhaps help us with contributions, if in your country there
should still be living traditions from that cycle of beast fables. Also, I beg
you to make our prospectus known through the pages of a journal, or to
let it make the round of your acquaintances, and to recommend their
participationi n the project.I maket his request in the hope that valuable
sources might be discovered which quite apart from our own interest,
will keep their value, and thus do not feel my request to be presumptious.
Subscription for which there is still time, will be handled by the
booksellers, Perthes und Besser, in Hamburg. They would also receive
for me Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, the very valuable present
your kindness is intending to make me, as these booksellers are in touch
with us. Please be so good as to let me know in your next letter to which
English bookseller I might send you books, also via Perthes und Besser.
Your comments regarding bonny and wall are doubtlessly well
founded. I did not at the time have available Dr. John Jamieson's dictionary
which I have since become acquainted with at the Gottingen
library. The Heldenbuch which Hagen and B.(usching?) tend publishing
meantime, is to contain the unaltered text, but most likely it will be
printed without critical commentary, as in the first volume of German
epics of the Middle Ages. I do not know whether the book will be published
soon; it has been announced for some time. I close with the assurance...
(Concept ends here)
This exchange of letters, brought to my notice through the courtesy of Dr Ludwig Denecke, Director Emeritus of the Brtider
Grimm Museum at Kassel, is another testimony to the constant efforts of early nineteenth-century antiquaries to extend their
researches beyond the limits of national boundaries.
NOTES
1. W. Schoof (ed.), Unbekannte Briefe der Br?ider Grimm, Bonn 1960, p. 100.
2. MS 3885, ff 7, National Library of Scotland.
3. H. J. C. Grierson, (ed.), The Letters of Sir Walter Scott, 12 vols. London 1932-37. III, pp. 434-9.
4. Wilhelm Miiller (ed.), Briefe der Brader Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm an Georg Friedrich Benecke aus den Jahren 1808-1829. Gottingen 1889, p. 81.
5. Grimm-Nachlass 118o (translated into English by the author). Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin.
6. Grimm-Schrank 385 (translated into English by the author). Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin.
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INTRODUCTION- Bronson
2. THE CHILD CANON
Since the contents of the present work are limited by, and lie well within, the compass of child's great collection, the current editor will be expected to declare his position with respect to the canon of authenticity in British popular balladry. It is very noticeable that of late students are becoming increasingly restive under Child's authority, more and more unwilling to grant a mere second-class citizenship to the ballads in their own collections which missed of his royal accolade.
Child's views of what to include, and what not, were slow in crystallizing-if, indeed, they could be said ever to have arrived at final assurance. His correspondence with Grundvig, [2] extending over the decad e 1872-1882, shows that for years he worried about two problems above all others: the "compass" and the "arrangement" of his collection. The negative results of his
efiorts to collect anything new from orrisources gradually convinced him that everything of this kind in existence was preserved somewhere in writing or print, and probably in better state there than in late oral tradition; so that the chief questions were, How much of the record to admit? and what order to put it in? In 1872 he declares himself no clearer in his answers than he had been in 186o, when his first collection was revised and republished; and in 1877 he confesses that by that date he believes he would "have made a beginning, on the new definitive edition, "if I had been able to satisfy myself with a good order" in 1874 he wrote that the distinction between "genuine national or people's ballads" and .,all varieties of base kind" is "easier to feel than to formulate"; and when finally the first part of the great collecton appeared (late in 1882), he referred to it as "nine-years-put-off." He now set little store br his earlier collection, declaring that it was a publisher's venture in which saleability and
speed of completion were essential considerations. "I felt obliged to include everything that the English had been accustomed to call Ballad at least in specimens." [3] "I never pretended that the arrangement was founded on a deeper principle than convenience. some sort of classification everybody expects"[4] Deprived, however, of such an excuse for the later series, he kept begging his friend Grundtvig for his ideas on arrangement, and postponing his own final decision. In the end, Grundtvig reluctantly complied with his wishes ("I thought that you ought to make it yourself," he wrote) and sent him a list of 269 ballads with their preferred variants, arranged in four classes, and grouped according to the stanza-form. The two-lined couplet with four accents and a refrain after each line Grundtvig considered the oldest of the stanzaic patterns. child conceded that this was "an approach to a rational arrangement" which had not occurred to him; and in the first part of the work as published, he followed it, only modifying so far as to group variants of a single ballad-complex together, whatever the formal scheme. "I was only too glad to have any way proposed," he wrote in 1882, "and thought your suggestion a very convenient one, and have adopted it." As to the order of the first group, he continues, "I do not deviate far from that which you sketched, and when I deviate (excepting Sir Lionel) I do not think my reasons very material."[5]
Without the evidence above, it would be plausible to infer that Child had planned his first part (Nos. 1-28), as well as his second (Nos. 29-53), as inviting samples of what prospective subscribers might expect. They show no clear indication of any scheme of arrangement: the stanzaic principle of Part I is obscured by the non-conforming variants of several ballads, by much metrical difierence among those in couplets, by the variety of intervening refrains, as well as by the absence of any signal of future divisions. on the other hand, there is an obvious tentative linking of similar themes, short of any attempt to gather together all of a kind. Child begins with three varieties of riddling ballads, then passes to the theme of bride-stealing by "unco" wooers, magic and treachery playing a part. The range of foreign analogues can be fully displayed in headnotes to some of thesg and several of the most striking illustrations of the supernatural are here presented for examination. From the tenth to the sixteenth ballad, interesting domestic tragedies, including incestuous connecrions, are exhibited. Nos. 17 to 19 have affiliations with medieval romance. Nos. 20 and 21 are matricidal, and related also in the penance predicted. Nos. 22 and 23 are scriptural apocrypha. Nos. 24 to 26 show further love-relations, grim or gay. Nos. 27 and, 28 are scraps that terminate the first part-so as not to throw all the left-overs to the end of the work. Most of these rarieties reappear two years later in the second part: romance-themes, the supernatural in love, more riddles, bride-stealing, familial relations with incestuous implications, romantic love ("Young Beichan") in a ballad analogous to "Hind Horn," ending in happy recognition and reunion. Had the religious group Nos. 54- 57 been included, Part II would pretty well have recapitulated the whole range of part I. Robin Hood, historical or pseudo-historical themes, and demonsrrably late ballads of romantic love are the chief classes omitted so far, and there were obvious reasons for postponing these large categories. Thus, the first two parts were repetitive cross-sections that could hardly have been bettered had they been solely designed to display variety, to win readers, and to establish the scope and importance of the work as a whole.
Even before the first part was printed Child wrote: "If I ever come to a second edition, I may modify the arrangernent."[6] Once in a while, as he goes, he indicates dissatisfaction with thepresent order. Thus, in a footnote to No. 234, he says the ballad should have come in with Nos. 221-25 [7] In view of the surprising ways in which ballads get modified and transformed
it might have been more systematic to put the derivative and secondary ballads regularly under their elder or parent forms, whether in appendices or sub-classes. Thus Nos. 17 and 252 have connections; 53, 62,73, and 253; 78, 248 and 255; 99 and 251; 115 and 249; 67 and 250. In cases such as these, Chiid separated because of the undoubted modernity of the later numbers. But to do so is to become involved in contradictions. The earliest recorded text of No. 10 is obviously perverted, burlesqued, and "modern," yet Child gives it the post of honor. No. 250 is still widely sung traditionally and with intermixtures of its earlier condition. It is, in fact, a better representative of "Sir Andrew Barton" (No. 167) than is 10A of the "Two Sisters" tradition; yet it is separated by almost a hundred places in the series from its parent stock. There is no strictly logical way to separate the new from the old, since the old is always being renewed and what looks newest may have immemorial roots. Ignorance of the full history of a ballad is no sound principle of distinction. If we will, we may make qualitative judgmenrs on aesthetic or anthropological grounds, or on the basis of date of record, but the argrument lies then in a very different area. Agelessness in ballads is not a figure of speech. Like Keats's nightingale, they were not born for death; but the species, not the individual, is meant.
When, shortly before he died, Child sat down to draft the Introduction he did not live to complete, he commenced with the following sentence: "In the moderate compass of less than five vol[ume]s there has now been gathered everything in the Engl[ish] language that by the most liberal interpretation could be called a popular ballad, and all the known versions of such."[8] Clearly, he thought that, in a rigorous accounting, he had exceeded rather than fallen short of the mark. His own occasional comments can be cited to justify the exclusion of a large number of pieces in the collection from the traditional genres and it would nor be difficult to make a case for relegating to appendices some sixty of the pieces that now cafiy independent numbers. This is not the place to enter a formal demonstration but a few instances may be cited in support of the assertion. One may refer to Child's headnotes to Nos. 147, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, all patently ballads individually composed and existing cnly in untraditional broadsides, sometimes even fouting the lore of their subject. Some rwo dozen-or two-thirds-
of the Robin Hood cycle are in comparable case.
From a canon of authentic popularity would also be excluded those pieces covered by Child's remark on "Young Ronald" (No. 304): "In this and not a very few other cases, I have suppressed disgust, and admitted an actually worthless and a manifestly-at least in part-spurious ballad, because of a remote possibility that it might contain relics, or be a debased representive of something genuine and better." Sometimes, as with Buchan's variant of "young 'Waters" he has reduced the spurious piece to an appendix. But jury-texts do not belong in a canon: if rothing has independently survived of a genuine anterior ballad (as distinct from a tale) either fragmentary or by testimony, it is idle to substitute the possibility for the fact. The existence, even, of foreign analogues will not greatly help, for the canon of traditional verse is not identical for all countries. No one assumes that there must have been a British analogue
2 cf. Sigurd B. Hustvedt, Ballad Books and Ballad Men, 1930, pp. 241- 300.
3 Op.cit., p. 262.
4 Ibid., P.254.
5 Op.cit., p. 292-3.
6 Op.cit., p. 293.
8 Child uss., Harvard Library, Vol. xvr, p. r32.
---------------------------
Sketch for a History of the Scottish Ballad
by William Montgomerie
Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, Vol. 8, No. 1 (1956), pp. 40-43
SKETCH FOR A HISTORY OF THE
SCOTTISH BALLAD
BY WILLIAMM ONTGOMERIE
1.
THERE w as a period of oral tradition, during which our ballads were sung. They had both words and music. Some of them were also danced and sung in a kind of drama.
'The Trumpeter of Fyvie' (Child, 233) is three-quarters dialogue, and "used in
former times to be presented in a dramatic shape at rustic meetings in Aberdeenshire".
(Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, Vol. IV, p. 301). One version of 'The
Maid Freed from the Gallows' (Child, 95) was played in Forfarshire by young girls
about 1840. (Notes & Queries, 6th Series, VI, 476). In the English version A it is
entirely dialogue. A Faroese version is a dramatic dance ballad. 'The Great Silkie of
Sule Skerry' (Child, 113) has a much longer version, 'The Play o' de Lathie Odivere'",
of 93 stanzas. Of it Traill Dennison wrote:
In the olden times, Orcadians at their convivial meetings amused themselves by rude dramatical
representationsi,n which lower animals often appearedo n the scene. In these performancest he
menye-singers acted the principal part. They were professionals hired to sing, recite, or act for
the entertainment of the company.
This ballad was at one time represented as a drama by the menye-singers . . . (The Scottish
AntiquaryV, ol. VIII, p. 53).
Such oral tradition is not yet dead in Scotland. For example, a version of 'Babylon'
(Child, 14) is still sung and dramatized by children in more than one district of
Scotland.
A second period began with the recording of ballads in print. In this sketch for a
history I wish to emphasize one landmark-Bishop Percy's Reliques of Ancient
[Juglish Poetry (1765). This was based on a manuscript.'
It is important to remember that Bishop Percy did not write his manuscript, he
foLnd it. For him it had no vital connexion with oral tradition. It was an orphan that
the Bishop took into his house. We can imagine him spending hours deciphering the
crabbed writing scarcely, if at all, aware that half of each ballad was completely
missing. There was lno music.
One might charge Bishop Percy with ignorance of the necessity of the music, for a
ballad without music is not a ballad. On the credit side it may be noted that, being
ignorant of the music, he could not tamper with that part of folk tradition, for he
did more than tamper with the poetical part. He rewrote the ballads, and changed
them into something else-literature.
Absence of music in his manuscript had set the Bishop a problem. It altered the
niature of his material, and deprived it of half its value. As a substitute for the music
he had to add something to the ballads to make them printable. Therefore he rewrote
them. They were destroyed as ballads, and recreated as something else, which should
not have been called ballads at all. They were ballad-poems.
The oral ballad tradition was still alive, running strongly under the ice of printed
literature.
Sir Walter Scott was a disciple of Bishop Percy. He came at the end of this second
period of restoration and printing without music. Most of his AMinstrelsyo f the
Scottish Border (1802-3) was edited from manuscripts. He was an editor rather than
a collector. Some of the manuscripts edited by Scott for his Minstrelsy had music in
them, but Scott chose not to use it. He was challenged by James Hogg's mother for
spoiling the ballads by printing them in books. She told him they were songs.
The next landmark in our sketch is two letters written within a few days of each
other. The first of them was sent by William Motherwell the ballad collector to
Sir Walter Scott in Edinburgh (April 28th, 1825). The writer wished to find out if
Sir Walter had another version of Motherwell's favourite ballad, 'Gil Moris' or
'Child Maurice'. The letter ends:
As it is of some importance to preserve these remnants of antient traditionary song in the
exact state in which they pass from mouth to mouth among the Vulgar, I mean to get this
Ballad inserted in a small 4to Collection of Ballads now in the course of publication by
John Wylie & Coy of Glasgow-Before doing so, however, I am anxious to learn whether you
were ever acquainted with the ballad, or had any copy of it which could rectify the text of the
Version now sent; also whether you think the opinion I have Ventured to express of its being the
most antient and genuine set of the ballad of Gil moris well or ill founded-If at any leisure
moment you would be good enough to give me information on these points I would feel singularly
obliged by your politeness and attention-I have the honour to be Sir &c &c.
Sir Walter wrote an answer from Abbotsford on May 3rd, 1825. Here are a few
sentenices from the middle of the letter:
I have heard my mother, who was fond of the ballad, say, that when Douglas3 was at its height
of popularity, Gil Morrice was, to a certain extent, rewritten, which renovated copy, of course,
includes all the new stanzas about "Minerva's loom", and so forth. Yet there are so many fine
old verses in the common set, that I cannot agree to have them mixed up even with your set,
though more ancient, but would like to see them kept quite separate, like different sets of the
same melody. In fact, I think I did wrong myself in endeavouring to make the best possible
set of an ancient ballad out of several copies obtained from different quarters, and that, in
many respects, if I improved the poetry, I spoiled the simplicity of the old song.
Between the receipt of Scott's letter in 1825 and the printing of Motherwell's
Minstrelsy Ancient and Modern in 1827, there is some evidence of improvement in
the quality of Motherwell's editing. These two letters began the third period of
accurate editing of oral and manuscript ballads-mostly without music-though the
battle was not won till the end of the century with the publication of Professor F. J.
Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads (1882-98).
One scholar was before his time. He fought for accuracy in ballad editing, and
applied the highest standards in his own work. I refer to Joseph Ritson. His constant
attacks on Bishop Percy have been misinterpreted. Our sympathies should be with
Ritson rather than Percy.
The letter that Scott sent to Motherwell turned up again in rather unusual circumstances.
The event is recorded in a letter sent by Professor Svend Grundtvig, the
greatest of Danish ballad editors, to Professor Child4. It is dated July 9th, 1874, and
was sent from Wildbad, Wiirtemberg. Grundtvig mentions a visit he had just paid
to Interlaken in Switzerland where, on the road from Montreux, he spent several days
at the "English Pension":
[I]n the same house I happened to finda volume, that I did not know before, but which was of
no little interest to me, viz. The Poetical Works of Wm. Motherwell with a memoir of his life.
(Boston, Ticknor etc. 1865). That which interested me more than anything else in that volume
was a very remarkable letter of the 3rd May, 1825, from Sir Walter Scott-I have not seen it
before, I am sure; though I wonder very much, that Motherwell did not print it in his Introduction
to his Minstrelsy-in which he expresses the very soundest principles with regard to Balladediting
which it is a great pity he did not follow himself in his Border Minstrelsy-but the
principles were of a later date than that work.
Grundtvig then quotes the last sentence of the above quotation from Scott's letter to
Motherwell, and concludes:
A very remarkable letter, quite agreeing with the principles, I had found out and worked
upon, without knowing that I had such an authority to face back upon; and in fact that same
authority was quoted against me when first (in the year 1847) I set forth my principles, and with
some reason, for his doing was very unlike these later words of his. You know the whole letter, I
dare say; if not, you must read it-and use it.
Child does not refer to Scott's letter in his reply to Grundtvig, but his principles as
editor of our ballads are the scholarly principles set down by Scott in his letter to
Motherwell. He prints his manuscript sources accurately. His five-volume edition
of our ballads seemed to be the last word on the matter. It was the last word of the
19th century, and summed up the third period which began with Joseph Ritson and
the letter sent by Sir Walter Scott to William Motherwell.
Before leaving this third period, and the 19th century, it is worth mentioning that
Motherwell printed 33 airs at the end of his Minstrelsy, and Child printed 46 in his
fifth volume. Motherwell had the help of his Paisley friend, Andrew Blaikie, and
Child printed his music from manuscript sources. Very conveniently this third period
ended with the end of the 19th century.
4.
The fourth and last period began at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1904, the New Spalding Club asked Gavin Greig, Schoolmaster of Whitehill, New Deer, in Aberdeenshire, to prepare a volume of traditional music. Greig had already begun
this work, and by the time of his death in August, 1914 (aged 58), he had collected
2,050 texts and 2,300 records of tunes. Others were collected by the Rev. J. B. Duncan
of LynturkO. ut of this masso f material-about 80 notebooksi n the GreigC ollection
-Mr. Alexander Keith has published the ballad texts and airs in his Last Leaves of
Aberdeen Ballads and Ballad Airs (1925). This book alone is the finest collection of
ballads ever published in Britain. It is complete, for the music is there too. The folk
songs in the Greig collection-apart from two small volumes of texts and commentariesw,
ithoutm usic,w rittenb y Greigh imselff or publicationi n a newspaper5-
are practicallyu ntouched.
Greig'sw orkw as done by hand,w ith a pen. With the recordingm achine,h is work
is being completed, at least on the recording side.
We have come full cycle, from pure oral tradition, past the improved ballad as
literaturet o be read and recited,p ast the accuratelyp rintedb allado f the scholart o
be studied,t o the originalb alladr eunitedt o its tune to be sunga gain.
It is to be hoped that in the near future the urge to improve Scottish folk songincluding
the ballads-will have died, and we shall be content to listen to the songs
sung,a s they wereo nce, unaccompaniedT. he earlieste videncef or this is the coupleo f
lines from 'Thomaso f Erceldoune'q, uotedb y Sir WalterS cott:
Harping, he said, ken I non,
For tong is chefe of mynstralcie.
Gavin Greig's work has confirmed this, with the evidence of hundreds of tunes. Tape
recordings let us hear the voices of the traditional singers and the style of singing.
Unfortunately, the best gramophone records of Scottish ballads are being made in
the U.S.A., and cannot be sold here. Restoration of much of our ballad tradition is
now possible, but the B.B.C., which could be very helpful, is not very interested. It
prefers to follow popular fashions. Or ballads are recited. Or ballads and folk songs
are sung accompanied by various unsuitable instruments, the most unsuitable being
the piano6.M orea nd moreb alladsa nd songsa reb eingt ransformedfr oma n artw hich
was once the common possession of the folk, into a craft which is the monopoly of a
miniority of professionals who do not often take the trouble to listen to traditional
singers, to learn how the songs should be sung.
Songs which fascinated our ancestors for centuries are being reduced to mediocrity,
and our native traditions destroyed, while the people who carry their songs about
with them are singing American imitations often derived from our native traditions.
If the repertoire of the professional singer were being greatly enriched there might
be a case for arranging and improving. But the settings are usually in the fashion of a
decade. Those who might, with proper guidance, be singers of folk songs are reduced to
listening, till the fashion changes, and we have lost both our own traditional songs,
and the improvements-the first by neglect, and the second because they are out
of fashion.
Footnotes:
1 See my essay on this ballad in the Scots Chronicle, Bums Federation, Kilmamock (1951), pp.
38-61. Professor Otto Andersson published the tune in Brittiska Intryck (Helsingfors 1938), p. 104.
2Bishop Percy'sF olio Manuscripte, d. J. W. Hales and F. J. Fumivall, 4 vols., (London, 1867-68).
The original MS is in the British Museum.
4 S. B. Hustvedt, Ballad Books and Ballad Men, (Harvard, 1930) p. 267.
3 John Home's romantic drama, based on the ballad (Edinburgh, 1756, and London, 1757).
5 Reprinted in book form as Folk-Song of the North-East, 2 vols. (Peterhead, 1914). 6 In Edinburgh, I once heard-at a Gaelic concert-mouth music accompanied by a piano