Date sent: Wed, 3 May 2000 17:51:43 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Ballad help needed
From: Rika Ruebsaat <[log in to unmask]>
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> We have formed in Vancouver a ballad study group, focussing particularly on
> Child ballads. Our Archives here have sung examples of some 120 of these,
> which will form the basis of our study. We are singers and scholars in
> various areas, but none of us is a ballad specialist. The ballad area seems
> to lie between the disciplines of music, literature, and anthropology. My
> question is two- fold: where can we find bibliographies of current work in
> ballad scholarship, and where can we find published articles on balladry,
> particularly on the Child ballads?
>
> I would greatly appreciate any help you can give me!
>
Dear Rika
It's a very interesting project to re-read Child. I have done some
work on the RobinHood ballads in Child, re-editing them from the
sources and found very few errors, though his punctuation can
sometimes be erratic and I think he has too rigid an idea of a
stanza - he puts rows of dots in to indicate missing lines when I
think there are occasional six line stanzas and even now and then
a five line stanza. When there are errors (as with Robin Hood and
the Monk), it usually turns out that someone else did the collating
for Child - in that case Skeat, or possibly Skeat's wife and sister in
law whom he pressed into service (according to Prof. Jill Mann, oral
comunication). The results of my editing are to be found in the
TEAMS edition (Western Michigan U.P.) of Robin Hood and Other
Outlaw Tales, ed. S.Knight and T.Ohlgren, 1997; revised edition
forthcoming. The notes refer quite frequently to Child's readings
when we differ from him.
Stephen Knight
Cardiff University
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