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Conversely, balladsclassified separately may contain turns of phrase, and even entire verses, that are identical.The Child Ballads deal with subjects typical to many ballads: romance, supernaturalexperiences, historical events, morality, riddles, murder, and folk heroes. On one extreme, somerecount identifiable historical people, in known events. On the other, some differ from fairy talessolely by their being songs and in verse; some have been recast in prose form as fairy tales.
Alarge part of the collections is about Robin Hood; some are about King Arthur. A few of theballads are rather bawdy. This small anthology of English ballads of the early nineteenth centuryhas been one of the most popular Tecla publications since it first appeared in 1983. Because ofcontinuing interest, the book is now reprinted, with only small changes to this introduction.The ballads were art songs, that is to say original compositions by composers of thisperiod. They are usually to a new literary text, and they usually have nothing to do with folksongs, which are of a different nature and have a different social connotation.
A furtherdistinction must also be made: they are not quite the same as the Victorian "drawing-room"ballad, which dates from the later part of the century. These songs from the earlier part of thecentury, written before Victoria came to the throne in 1837, are subtly different: to my ear atleast they are sturdier, less maudlin, participating still in an eighteenth-century tradition.It would be true to say that the ballads of that time were among the most popular formsof music of their day. Published in their thousands, they reached and touched most people, andtheir appeal was enormous. Their sentiments often appeal to us to this day, and songs of a verysimilar nature are still performed by singers with enormous success on stage and television.Sometimes their sentiments seem exaggerated in the context of today's taste, but neverthelessmost ballads are stories of love with a charming simplicity and a splendid melodic gift that caneasily and gladly be surrendered to today.
The best of them are works of art that, beyond anyquestion, deserve to be taken seriously.Ballads are considered to be a rich source of data connected with history, social life,feelings and values of the British people.Patriotism is the main theme of the ballads devoted to the war between England andScotland for independence. All history of relations between England and Scotland can be tracedinthe historical ballads. There were ballads recounting historical events, such as battlesbetween the English and the Scots (The Border Ballads).The battle of Harlaw was fought on July 24, 1411. Donald of the Isles, to maintain hisclaim to the Earldom of Ross, invaded the country south of the mountains with ten thousandislanders and men of Ross in the hope of sacking Aberdeen, and reducing to his power thecountry as far as the Tay.
He was met at Harlaw, eighteen miles northwest of Aberdeen byAlexander Stewart, the Earl of Mar and Alexander Ogilby, sheriff of Angus, with the forces ofMar, Garioch, Angus. The Highlanders lost more than nine hundred men, the Lowlanders fivehundred, including nearly all the gentry of Buchan. The story is told by a Highlander, and beginswith his meeting with Sir James the Rose and Sir John the Gryme (Graham), who ask forinformation about Macdonell (Donald of the Isles).The battle of Otterburn was fought on August 19, 1388 and was prefaced by an invasionand several skirmishes.
A feud between the great families, Percy and Neville, of northernEngland was a fortuitous split of which the Scots could not resist taking advantage. Assemblingtheir armies, which amounted to twelve hundred cavalry and forty thousand foot soldiers, theScottish barons and knights mustered near the border at Jedburgh.The English barons and knights, having received word back from heralds and minstrelsthey had sent north, made preparation for the invasion, but remained quietly in their houses,waiting until they learned that the Scots were making their move.
They had decided to make asimultaneous counter raid.The Scots learned of this plan from an English spy they had captured.They divided their army sending the main body west to Carlisle, under command of Douglas,Earl of Fife, son of the king, while a detachment of three or four hundred men at arms, supportedby two thousand soldiers, partly archers, commanded by James, Earl of Douglas, the Earls ofMarch and Murray, struck out for Newcastle with the intention of crossing the river and burningand ravaging Durham.There was skirmishing for two days outside the city and in the course of a long combatbetween Douglas and Henry Percy, the Scot got possession of the Englishman's pennon.
He toldPercy he would raise it on the highest point of his castle at Dalkeith. Percy responded that notonly would Douglas never accomplish that self-glorifying boast, nor would he manage to carrythe pennon out of Northumberland.Thus the stage was set for the battle at Otterburn, thirty miles northwest fromNewcastle, where there was a castle or tower set in marshy ground. Percy, greatly mortified atthe loss of his pennon, presented his case and the affront to his honor to the knights and squiresof Northumberland. Convinced that Douglas was backed by the whole power of Scotland, theyreplied that it was better to lose a pennon than it was to expose the country to further risk.
Later,scouts arrived with information that Douglas was encamped at Otterburn, but that the main armyhad departed for Carlisle to join with their countrymen there. In reality, they had madethemselves huts in the trees and driven their cattle into the bogs.In the end, the losses of the English were put at 1,040 prisoners, 1,860 killed and morethan 1,000 wounded. Those of the Scots were about 100 killed, including the Douglas himself,and 200 captured. Douglas was interred at Melrose Abbey. Over his body a tomb of stone wasbuilt, and above this was raised the Earl of Northumberland's pennon.The Hunting of the Cheviot is about two noblemen of opposite sides of the borderregion between England and Scotland – Percy of Northumberland, England and Douglas ofScotland – square off in this lengthy ballad which takes place in the Cheviot Hills.
In a departurefrom classic tales of border warfare, which usually involve cattle rustling, this ballad begins witha dispute about deer hunting, and evolves into an alternate version of The Battle of Otterburn,which occurred in 1388.English fairy talesThis is the usual English term for a group of oral narratives centered on magical tests,quests, and transformations, which are found throughout Europe and in many parts of Asia too.They are defined by their plots, which follow standard basic patterns, and have been classified byAntti Aarne and Stith Thompson, The Types of the Folktale (1961); their function is to be oralentertainment for adults as well as children, and telling them well is a skilled art.
The term ‘fairytale’ only appeared in the 18th century, almost certainly as a translation of the French Contes desFées, the title of a book by Madame d'Aulnois published in 1698 and translated into English thefollowing year. It is universally understood, but not in fact accurate, since many of the best-lovedstories have no fairies in them, though magic abounds; consequently some scholars prefer theterms ‘Wonder Tales’ or ‘Magic Tales’.Cross-cultural transmissionTwo theories of origins have attempted to explain the common elements in fairy talesfound spread over continents. One is that a single point of origin generated any given tale, whichthen spread over the centuries; the other is that such fairy tales stem from common humanexperience and therefore can appear separately in many different origins.Fairy tales with very similar plots, characters, and motifs are found spread across manydifferent cultures.
Many researchers hold this to be caused by the spread of such tales, as peoplerepeat tales they have heard in foreign lands, although the oral nature makes it impossible totrace the route except by inference.[47] Folklorists have attempted to determine the origin byinternal evidence, which can not always be clear; Joseph Jacobs, comparing the Scottish tale TheRidere of Riddles with the version collected by the Brothers Grimm, The Riddle, noted that inThe Ridere of Riddles one hero ends up polygamously married, which might point to an ancientcustom, but in The Riddle, the simpler riddle might argue greater antiquity.[48]Folklorists of the "Finnish" (or historical-geographical) school attempted to place fairytales to their origin, with inconclusive results.[49] Sometimes influence, especially within alimited area and time, is clearer, as when considering the influence of Perrault's tales on thosecollected by the Brothers Grimm.
Little Briar-Rose appears to stem from Perrault's SleepingBeauty, as the Grimms' tale appears to be the only independent German variant.[50] Similarly,the close agreement between the opening of Grimms' version of Little Red Riding Hood andPerrault's tale points to an influence—although Grimms' version adds a different ending (perhapsderived from The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids).Fairy tales also tend to take on the color of their location, through the choice of motifs,the style in which they are told, and the depiction of character and local color.When discussing English Fairy Tales, one must begin by defining terms, the first ofwhich is the word English.
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