Simon Furey writes:

One final point: separating the English-language
balladry of England 
from
that of Wales, Scotland and Ireland is almost
impossible. While some 
songs
are clearly from one country or another (you have to
remember that a 
huge
number of the Child ballads are Scottish...

I agree with Simon, but I'd just like to point out one
remarkable set of ballads considered to be of
exclusive English heritage--the thirty or so ballads
on Robin Hood. Perhaps the 3 or 4 rare Arthurian
ballads in Child's collection can also be regarded as
"Made in England"?

As for a British equivalent for F.J.Child, I don't
think Percy will qualify-- no one will. Of course the
credit for spearheading the ballad movement goes to
Percy. Only collecting ballads, since Percy has been
accused of collating as well as collecting.

But you only have to visit a library and haul down all
the volumes(be warned of the weight of the hefty
volumes!)of Child's English and Scottish Popular
Ballads, to get an idea of the enormity of the task
undertaken by that great man. He not only collected as
many versions as possible, but verified the
authenticity of the collected ballads in as scientific
a manner as possible. He delved into the very psyche
of these ballads by conducting a thorough and
extensive research. No wonder today we bow before his
incredible scholarship.But I think the most important
point is that he absolutely LOVED the ballads.Period.

The above "lecture" was for Mr Speranza's benefit
since he seems hooked on Child. Mind you, my words are
not really adequate to describe Child's greatness, but
it's the best I can do.J.L.S can discover the rest for
himself.

And sorry, J.K...I mean J.L SperanZa for having
mis-spelt your name--unpardonable on my part,I know!

As for which part of India I'm from, I hail from a
tiny state on the southernmost tip of India called
Kerala, which our tourism dept. prides on calling
"God's Own Country". 

Talking of Leslie Nelson's great site on Child, I too
wish to express my sentiments on this site -- I'll
just say I had the good fortune to actually listen to
a British ballad tune for the first(and only) time on
this site a couple of months ago. I'd regarded British
ballads as just texts earlier.Since listening to the
haunting melody of Barbara Allen, don't I know
differently!

Best wishes to all.
Beena Thomas

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