2. Folk or Traditional ballad XV – XVI CENTURIES

3. Anonymous oral form Europe. Anonymous oral form which appears in the late Middle Ages throughout Europe. oral modesound aspectimportant The oral mode makes the sound aspect very important for the ballad singer because: memorize sound devices in order to memorize the ballad singers can only make use of sound devices such as: 1. Rhyme 1. Rhyme (Dominant rhyme scheme ABCB or ABAB) 2. Stress Pattern 2. Stress Pattern (Alternation of 4 stress lines and 3 stress lines) 3. Repetition 3. Repetition of keywords, phrases, whole lines and refrains 4. Alliteration

4. Themes love Ballads are usually about love which may be: 1. erotic love, courting between a married man and a girl 1. erotic love, like in “Elfin Knight”, a ballad describing the courting between a married man and a girl, or 2. tragic love,a kitchen boy is murdered by the king’s men because of his love for the king’s daughter 2. tragic love, like in “Lady Diamond”, where a kitchen boy is murdered by the king’s men because of his love for the king’s daughter. In the end the king’s daughter herself dies because of her sorrow for the loss of her true love; magic and the supernatural the story ofa young girl who is killed by her sister for jealousy magic and the supernatural are other typical themes of medieval ballads, see for example the ballad “Cruel sister” where we are told the story of a young girl who is killed by her sister for jealousy, but the crime is revealed on her wedding day by a magic harp made of the bones of the victim’s breast and three locks of her hair.

5. The language of the Ballad Large use of simple syntactic structures simple syntactic structures (there are no subordinate clauses ) simple lexis simple lexis mainly: a. monosyllabic wordsconcrete nouns a. monosyllabic words and concrete nouns of Anglo-Saxon origin. a. stock phrasesa fixed set of words fair pretty maid a. stock phrases (= a fixed set of words to describe someone or something: e.g. “fair pretty maid” is used in “Geordie” to refer to the female character; and my milk-white horse “my milk-white horse” is used to refer to her horse). c. formulae c. formulae (= Idea or concept expressed in identical or almost identical words: e.g. in the ballad “Geordie”, in the first two lines of the second stanza, to express desperate hurry Geordie’s wife says: “Come bridle me my milk-white horse, come bridle me my pony”

6. Narrative technique narrator the voice of one of the characters The story is usually told by a narrator and through the voice of one of the characters involved in the story, dialogue this implies that dialogue is largely used. Authorship origins mystery The origins of this anonymous poetic form are a mystery; Questions Who wherewhen Questions on Who exactly composed the ballads, or where and when these were composed remain unanswered; the area where the English ballads were composed words of Scottish origin probably composed on the border between England and Scotland Something more may be said about the area where the English ballads were composed thanks to the fact that many of them contain a lot of words of Scottish origin, this makes us think that they were probably composed in an area on the border between England and Scotland.

7. Audience intended for the common peoplein the villages Ballads were intended for the common people who lived in the villages, this is the reason why they mainly deal with events and situations in the everyday life of common people. Source of ballad texts many versions same ballad an oral form reproducing a text exactlytelling old stories in the old traditional way. The existence of many versions of the same ballad can be easily explained by the fact that ballads were mainly an oral form and even if ballad singers had exceptional memories, they did not aim at reproducing a text exactly, they simply aimed at telling old stories in the old traditional way.

8. The Bonny Swans ____________ A (1) ______ there lived in the (2) ______ country A hey ho bonny o ______ And he had (3) ______ one, two, three ______ The swans (4) ______ so bonny o ______ These daughters they (5) ______ by the river’s brim A hey ho bonny o ______ The eldest (6) ______ the youngest in The swans swim so bonny o ______ Oh sister, oh sister, pray (7) ______ me your hand With a hey ho a bonny o ______ And I will give you (8) ______ and land the swans swim so bonny o ______ I’ll give you neither hand nor (9) ______ with a hey ho a bonny o

9. The Bonny Swans ____________ (10) ______ you give me your own true (11) ______ the swans swim so bonny o ______ Sometimes she (12) ______, sometimes she swam with a hey ho a bonny o ______ (13) ______ she came to miller’s dam the swans swim so bonny o ______ The miller’s daughter, (14) ______ in red with a hey ho a bonny o ______ She went for some (15) ______ to make some bread the swans swim so bonny o ______ Oh father, oh daddy, here swims a (16) ______ with a hey ho a bonny o ______ It’s very like a gentle (17) ______ the swans swim so bonny o ______ They placed her on the (18) ______ to dry

10. The Bonny Swans with a hey ho a bonny o ______ There came a harper (19) ______ by the swans swim so bonny o ______ He made harp pins of her (20) ______ fair with a hey ho a bonny o ______ He made harp (21) ______ of her golden hair the swans swim so bonny o ______ He made a harp of her (22) ______ bone with a hey ho a bonny o ______ And straight it began to (23) ______ alone the swans swim so bonny o ______ He (24) ______ it to her father’s hall with a hey ho a bonny o ______ And there was the (25) ______, assembled all the swans swim so bonny o

11. The Bonny Swans ______ He (26) ______ the harp upon a stone with a hey ho a bonny o And straight it began to play alone the swans swim so bonny o ______ And there does (27) ______ my father the King with a hey ho a bonny o ______ And (28) ______ sit my mother the Queen the swans swim so bonny o ______ And there does sit my (29) ______ Hugh with a hey ho a bonny o ______ And by him (30) ______, sweet and true the swans swim so bonny o ______ And there does sit my (31) ______ sister, Anne with a hey ho a bonny o ______ Who (32) ______ me for the sake of a man the swans swim so bonny o