The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, in Five Volumes - Volume I [1] (Dover Books on Literature, Literary History, Criticism)

xxxi, 508 pp. "Prof. Child compiled all the extant ballads with all known variations and made them available for the first time, together with his own invaluable commentary, in a single source that maintained absolute fidelity to the original texts. His ten-part study, 'The English and Scottish Popular Ballads,' published from 1882 to 1898, became the definitive collection of popular ballads in the English language, never to be superseded... The entire collection comprises 305 ballads, many with ten or more versions. Prefacing each ballad section, there is a comprehensive discussion of the history, date, lore, and different versions of the ballad, the place of the ballad in various cultural traditions and how the material in English and Scottish popular ballads is related to that of folktales of Europe and other parts of the world. Included in the latter discussion is a comparison of the treatments of the same or similar tales in many languages and cultures, including French, Italian, German, Slavic, Swedish, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Finnish, Lettish, Romaic, Lithuanian, Albanian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Magyar, etc. This volume I, which includes Parts I & II of the original set, contains ballads 1-53. Among the ballads studied here are 'Earl Brand,' 'Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight,' 'The Twa Sisters,' 'Lord Randal,' 'Thomas Rymer,' 'Tam Lin,' and 'Proud Lady Margaret.' Also included in this volume are a biographical sketch of Child by Prof. Kittredge, a portrait of him by G. Kruell, and a section of Additions and Corrections."