Border Ballads: A Selection

By James Reed

The Border Ballads are rooted in the wild and beautiful lands that lie between England and Scotland, a traditionally lawless area whose inhabitants owed allegiance first to kin and laird, and only then to the authorities in London or Edinburgh. Recording a violent, clannish world of fierce hatreds and passionate loyalties, the ballads tell vivid tales of raids, feuds and betrayals, romances and acts of revenge. They celebrate ungovernable heroes and powerful women, often in laments for the murderous results of breaking tribal codes, and they evoke the presence of an older border, between the natural and the supernatural worlds. The Border Ballads were long regarded as primitive poems. This selection restores their identity within the oral tradition, setting them in the context of their time and place with the aid of maps and a glossary.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fyfield Books
• Release date: Jul 27, 2012
• ISBN: 9781847776198

Reviews for Border Ballads

[antiquary_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a good selection of the Scottish border ballads, with an introduction by James Reed and helpful maps of the territories of the "surnames" (he Border equivalent of Highland clans) and of the Anglo-Scottish Border itself. The ballads are organized by the three "marches" of the border (West, Middle and East) ; some are based, at least loosely, on real raids such as "The Battle of Otterburn," others are frankly supernatural, as in "Tamlane," Thomas the Rhymer," and "The Wife of Usher's Well." I have loved these songs since I was young. Although my genetic heritage is only slightly Scottish, I grew up in the Presbyterian Church and read Walter Scott in my youth,