Optional Course
English and Scottish Ballads
Lecturer: Dr James Brown
Second semester 2016–2017
“The ballad is a folk-song that tells a story”: so begins an often quoted definition of the genre in English
(Gerould 3). Circulating for centuries in oral tradition and on ephemeral printed sheets, ballads have fed
the imaginations and given expression to the values and concerns of generations of singers and listeners
in the English-speaking world, and even in the twenty-first century they have not lost their power to
engage the interest of singers and listeners. In this course we will be looking at the sort of stories these
songs tell, the characteristic ways in which they tell them, and how we, as readers and listeners today,
can continue to find meaning in them.
The course will begin with a general introduction, in which students will discover, through examples,
what English-language ballads are like, and some basic concepts will be introduced, including an outline
of the history of the ballad and of the development of scholarly and literary interest in the genre.
Comparisons will be made with ballads from other European traditions, especially Romanian, Danish, and
Spanish. As the course progresses, we will look at a wider selection of ballads, focusing on themes such as
“wit combat” (how to win a husband/wife or escape the devil by responding appropriately to riddles and
impossible tasks), supernatural encounters (abduction by fairies, visits from the returning dead), gender
relations (what threats and challenges face women in the world of the ballads, and what skills they need
to survive), and outlaws and other popular heroes. Once students are have become familiar with a variety
of ballad texts, we will then turn our attention to the poetics of the ballads (and also of some nonnarrative folksongs), looking especially at the debate over whether their distinctive style reflects their
having been transmitted (and perhaps created) orally. At the same time we will also look at the long
interaction between oral tradition and popular print culture in Britain, and at how this has contributed to
the development of the ballad tradition.
As ballads are in the first place songs, and cannot be fully appreciated by reading alone, the course will be
illustrated wherever possible with sound recordings of traditional and modern performances of the
ballads.
Bibliography
The ballad texts discussed in the course will be provided on course handouts. Recommended secondary
reading will include extracts from the following (photocopies will be made available):
Atkinson, David. The Anglo-Scottish Ballad and Its Imaginary Contexts. Open Book Publishers, 2014
Atkinson, David. The English Traditional Ballad: Theory, Method and Practice. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002
Fowler, David C. A Literary History of the Popular Ballad. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1968
Gerould, Gordon Hall. The Ballad of Tradition. 1932. New York: Galaxy, 1957
Lloyd, A.L. Folk Song in England. 1967. St Albans: Paladin, 1975
Renwick, Roger de V. English Folk Poetry: Structure and Meaning. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania Press,
1980
Toelken, Barre. Morning Dew and Roses: Nuance, Metaphor and Meaning in Folksongs. Urbana &
Chicago: U of Illinois Press, 1995
Requirements
At least 70% attendance is expected. Assessment will be on the basis of a combination of oral
presentations and written examination.