Review: The Ballad of "Lady Isabel and the False Knight"
by Josiah H. Combs
Midwest Folklore, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Summer, 1955), pp. 122-123
BALLAD STUDIES AND RECORDINGS
The Ballad of "Lady Isabel and the False Knight." Dr. Iivar Kemppinen. (Helsinki: Kirja-Mono Oy, 1954.) pp. 301. Sold by the Aketeeminen Kirjakauppa (Academic Bookshop), Helsinki. It is a pleasure to meet with a book of this sort by a great European scholar from far-off Finland. But Dr. Kemppinen is not unknown as a folklorist. He has already written a number of books and articles on folklore. Of interest to students in the English speaking world is the fact that this book is written in English. The author must be a linguist and philologist of note, as he has examined variants of this famous ballad from practically all the European countries except the Balkans, from Canada, the United States, Latin America, Australia, and even from Asia. To illustrate the comprehensive nature of his work, the author has amassed the fearful total of eight thousand pages of variants and photostat copies of the ballad. The bibliography alone comprises twenty-six pages, a notable achievement in itself.
In general, Dr. Kemppinen divides his work into three parts:
I. Variant Analysis (165 pp.).
II. Comparative Analysis (40 pages).
III. The Theory of the Origin and Source of the Ballad (13 pages).
The Introduction itself is a sensible, logical approach to the whole subject. Ballad study has come a long way since Joseph Ritson's Scottish Songs (1794), and William Motherwell's Minstrelsy. Then came Svend Grundtvig, the Dane, and Francis James Child. Since it may reasonably be assumed that the important mass of ballads in Europe and America have been recovered and preserved for posterity, the trend now seems to be in the direction of a study of individual ballads. As Dr. Kemppinen remarks, this trend has been accelerated because of the abandonment of the old theory that folk poems are some sort of collective creation.
Part II considers such topics as a General Survey of the Variant Material, The Persons of the Ballad, How the Knight Charms the Maid, The Scene of the Killing, The Cunning of the Maid, Killing, The Epilogue, Summary, The Original Content of the Ballad in the light of Analysis, The Oldest Forms of the Ballad, The Place of Origin of the Ballad. More than 1,800 variants of the ballad are noted. Dr. Kemppinen may be slightly in error when he lists all of these as variants of the ballad in question; but presumably the motif is the same in all of them, and he may be on solid ground. Part III is concerned with The Theory of the Origin and Source of the Ballad, The Origin of Folk Poems in General, Various Theories of the Source of the Ballad of the False Knight, and The Solution of the Problem. Here Dr. Kemppinen makes some of his best contributions. He realizes the difficulty of his task: "However, it is not always an easy task to search for the origin of a ballad that has traveled widely across the frontiers of nationality and language . . ." As to folk poems, he brushes aside the theory of communal composition in favor of individual composition (that is, originally). After discussing various theories of the origin and source of the ballad in question, the author concludes that the ballad probably originated between 1100 and 1200; that its content leads us to the old Harlewin tradition (prior to the 12th century). He cites evidences of philology and music to support his claims.
Dr. Kemppinen thinks that "The center of the areas in which the original features of the ballad have been preserved most purely, integrally and harmoniously, is the region of the lower Rhine, perhaps in the vicinity of the provinces of Belgium, Holland and northeastern France . . ." Perhaps too much emphasis is placed upon the influence of the round-dance. It is a far call from the simple music of the round-dance to the finished folksongs of a later date. The appearance of certain repetends here and there in folk-songs, in spite of their antiquity and acknowledged connection with the dance, is not sufficient evidence. But here again the issue is beclouded by the passing of time. Dr. Kemppinen is speaking of origins, and he is entitled to his opinions. All in all, The Ballad of "Lady Isabel and the False Knight" is probably the most scholarly and comprehensive research that has yet appeared on any single ballad.
Mary Washington College of the Josiah H. Combs
University of Virginia