Literary History

Literary History: The Ballad Tradition

In fifteenth-century Britain, most people were illiterate and relied on traveling musicians and local storytellers for their information and entertainment. These musicians and storytellers performed folk ballads, or rhymed verse that is sung or recited.

Folk ballads were a way of telling stories about real people and events. They were usually about revenge, tragedy, heroic deeds, or stories of love gone awry. Folk ballads originated in England and Scotland; many of them were written and rewritten as they were handed down throughout the ages, so the authors are seldom known.

The Romantic poets were influenced by folk and medieval literature and created literary ballads as an interpretation of the folk ballad. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow responded with “The Wreck of the Hesperus,” Samuel Taylor Coleridge with “ The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” John Keats with “La Belle Dame sans Merci,” and Oscar Wilde with “The Ballad of Reading Gaol.”

English and Scottish folk ballads shared many common attributes. They told stories of an actual event and usually relied on the facts of a story rather than emotions or sentiment. They also were impersonal in that they told the story from a character’s point of view, not that of the narrator. Folk ballads also use a refrain or a burden throughout the piece (a burden was a chorus in which listeners joined), and oftentimes contained sharp insights, or what is called folk wisdom.

Contemporary poets and musicians carry on the folk ballad traditions. Irish folk singers and contemporary musical artists such as Bob Dylan were highly influenced by this literary form.

Bibliography

The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, Volume I. Northfield: MN: Loomis House Press, 2002. An updated edition of Professor Francis James Child’s (1825–1896) collection and study of popular English and Scottish ballads.

The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, Volume III. Northfield: MN: Loomis House Press, 2005. This edition was out of print for decades, but has been updated and edited. Volume III includes twenty ballads from the original edition as well as additional ballads from Professor Child’s original sources.

Lyrical Ballads, 1798. New York: Oxford University Press, 1971. A collection of poetry by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, including “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” “The Idiot Boy,” and “Tintern Abbey.”

The Book of Old English Ballads. New York: Kessinger, 2004. A collection of Old English ballads, including “Robin Hood and Allen-a-Dale” and “Fair Rosamond.”

The Lyrics of Bob Dylan
http://bobdylan.com/songs/
Bob Dylan is an American folk singer who was heavily influenced by the folk balladeers. This Web site contains an alphabetical list of Dylan’s songs and lyrics.

The History of the Ballad
http://www.humanitiesweb.org/human.php?s=l&p=m&a=l&ID=10
This site has a brief history of the ballad, with examples and links.

Robin Hood and the Monk
http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/monk.htm#42
Read the entire text of the earliest ballad written about Robin Hood, the noble outlaw from Sherwood Forest. This version includes modern English translations next to each line and some commentary.