 |
 |
Date sent: Wed, 3 May 2000 17:51:43 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Ballad help needed From: Rika Ruebsaat <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Send reply to: [log in to unmask] > 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 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%