OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE

MEDIEVAL ENGLISH LITERATUREThe Popular Ballad Definition: A ballad (from the late Latin and Italian ballare 'to dance') is, fundamentally, a song that tells a story and it originally was a musical accompaniment to a dance. One may distinguish between folk, traditional ballads and literary ballads (e.g. Coleridges Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Wildes Ballad of Reading Gaol)

A categorization of ballads according to dominant theme:1. Ballads of domestic relations: deal with jealousy, revenge, rivalry, exile, murder; e.g. Binnorie/ Two Sisters2. Ballads of superstition: stories of fairies, ghosts and witches; e.g. The Wife of Ushers Well

3. Ballads of love and death: true or false love, love testing, faithfulness, and tragic fate or death of the lovers;4. Humorous ballads: dealing with domestic quarrels; e.g. Get Up and Bar the Door

5. Historical Ballads: mostly border ballads about the fights between the Scots and the English; e.g. Chevy Chase

6. Ballads of outlawry: about Robin Hood and his men.Basic characteristics common to large numbers of ballads:

(a) the beginning is often abrupt;

(b) the language is simple;

(c) the story is told through dialogue and action;

(d) the theme is often tragic (though there are a number of comic ballads);

(e) usually there is a refrain.

To these features we may add:

a ballad usually deals with a single episode;

the events leading to the crisis are related swiftly;

there is minimal detail of surroundings;

there is a strong dramatic element;

there is considerable intensity and immediacy in the narration;

the narrator is often impersonal;

there is frequently incremental repetition;

the single line of action and the speed of the story preclude much attempt at delineation of character

imagery is sparse and simple.