Review: A Comparative Study of the Ballad of "The Maid Freed from the Gallows"
by Josiah H. Combs
Midwest Folklore, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Autumn, 1958), pp. 168-169
BALLADS AND FOLKSONGS
Lunastettava neito, Vertaileva balladitutkimus (A Comparative Study of the Ballad of "The Maid Freed from the Gallows"). Ivar Kemppinen. (Helsinki: Kirja-Mono, 1957.) 165 pp. Sold by the Aketeeminen Kirjakauppa (Academic Bookshop) Helsinki.
Students of the traditional ballad of "Lady Isabel and the False Knight" will remember Dr. Kemppinen's fine study of this ballad (1954), reviewed in Midwest Folklore. Comes now the great Finnish scholar and folklorist with another important study (in Finnish) of still another famous ballad, published late last year. Dr. Kemppinen, with his usual flair for research and investigation, makes here a scholarly safari into the origins and prevalence of "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" (Child, No. 95). He reports and examines versions and variants from Finland, Sweden, Esthonia, and Germany, and states further:
"The ballad has spread throughout Europe, North America, the West Indies and Australia, in addition to which motifs of the ballad are to be found in Hebrew, Armenian, Indian and African stories. The researcher had at his disposal and analysed 1,634 variants of this ballad."
Dr. Kemppinen analyzed four characteristic themes of the ballad that have been preserved in different countries. This important study consists of two parts: Variant Analysis, and the Theory of the Origin of the Ballad. Departing from the old theories that the ballad is historical, viewing the maid as a kidnapped victim, etc., Dr. Kemppinen deduces that it is the fate of the maid, her life or death, that is in question in the ballad-which, he concludes, is purely mythical.
The author skillfully connects the theme, or motif of the ballad with classic Greek literature, with Euripides and his Alcestis (438 B.C.), in which Euripides stuck very closely to the old mythical theme. In his investigation Dr. Kemppinen demonstrates how an
echo from a folk poem may be carried over to the man of the atomic age through the civilizations of ancient Argos, Mycenae, Athens and Rome, and the balladry of the medieval Renaissance. He opines that "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" originated around the 12th. or 13th. century, in southern Europe, that it is based on a mythical subject of these old cultures. All in all, Dr.Kemppinen's book is an important contribution to ballad study.
Fort Worth, Texas
Josiah H. Combs