Customer Reviews

The English and Scottish Popular Ballads - Volume 1

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Child's "English and Scottish Popular Ballads" is THE sourcebook for anyone interested in the traditional ballads of the British Isles, and also invaluable to all aficionados of European folklore and folksong in general. For those not up on their terminology, a ballad is a folksong with a plot, and Child's collection covers everything from foul murders to star-crossed lovers to Robin Hood, in five volumes.

I am extremely happy that someone has finally issued an edition incorporating the various addenda and corrections that Child made before his death. There is nothing here that Child did not write, so if you are looking for additional scholarship or commentary you will be disappointed; but the Loomis House edition vastly improves over the Dover facsimiles in completeness and convenience. Additional variants, comments and even some tunes (the one big omission in the original) are placed conveniently near the main text of each category rather than buried in appendices (most of which aren't included in the Dover editions at all). It's well worth the few extra dollars over the Dover books.

My one quibble is that they do not reproduce some of the typographical distinctions that Child occasionally used to indicate different features of a text, but this is overshadowed by all the good points of this edition.

Overall this is a wonderful and affordable edition; I fervently hope that all five volumes are issued as planned (it's been almost a year since Volume 3 came out...). I have no idea why Amazon makes these books so hard to find on their site: fix this, guys!

In summary: Buy this book. Now if someone would only reprint Bertrand Bronson's "The Singing Tradition of Child's Popular Ballads" as well....

Superb. For anyone interested in either the words or origins of English & Scottish folk music this is essential. You can settle those arguments (over a beer) as to who has the correct words or the origin.

The biblography needs some getting used to but when you understand it you will find this book a good companion.

I first heard of the Child ballads when I was about 13 years old and have been looking for a copy ever since. I was delighted to discover they have been brought back into print. This publication is particularly exciting since the editors have chosen to include musical notation collected by Child but not included in the original publication. Many of the ballads still sung today in Eastern Canada and the US were derived from these ballads, so these books are a facinating study of the earlier origins of these and many other ballads from the british iles.

Had I the time, I'd write my own ballad here - a tragic song mourning the fact that Dover Books has apparently let the anchor of any decent Anglo-Celtic folk music collection go out of print. I take comfort in the fact that I've got mine, but those just building their libraries will have to search used bookstores and haunt the bookfinding services of the Net. Meanwhile, one more brick is placed in the wall of time that separates us from the ancestral voices.

Great news for anyone interested in the traditional folk ballads known as the "Child Ballads" that Francis James Child's late 1800s compilation "The English and Scottish Pupular Ballads" is now republished in a fully corrected and revised edition with the traditional tunes reunited with the texts. The new edition by Loomis House Press (...) is now available in paperback and cloth editions - so far volumes 1, 2 and 3 (of 5) are issued. Amazon lists them but the three volumes are hard to find on the Amazon site. The earlier 1965 facsimile edition by Dover has also now been republished - but the Loomis House Press edition is greatly superior - and is available from Loomis in USA and Springthyme in UK as well as from Amazon.

I bought this book for a class on ballads, not really realizing how many editions of this book are out there. My professor looked at it and told me that it was one of the crappiest editions of Child's ballads she has ever seen in her life. It is based off of Child's notes for publication rather than the final compilation that he actually published. Not only does it not have any commentary from the most recent editor, it does not have all of the commentary from the original editor and author.

I'm one of the assistant editors for this book.

The Anthology (ARDA) is a collection of 33 years of writings from the Reformed Druids of North America (RDNA)The RDNA was founded in 1963 as a protest against mandatory religious attendence at Carleton College in Minnesota. So, the founders made up their own religion instead, and somehow, it continued even after the requirement was dropped. Every new class and graduate missionaries would mix Celtic customs, with a search for Awareness, Asian traditions and copious cheeky humor.

ARDA includes study guides, essays, liturgies, organizational trivia, stories, a lengthy history, and humorous materials that permit a deep understanding of our history and operations. It is rife with footnotes and explanatory passages. It is a psuedo-portable compilation (500 pages) of RDNA records from the massive Druid Archives at Carleton College, which also includes books and materials from other academia and Druid movements.

The RDNA (1963) were the first modern Druid groups in America. The well known ADF (1981) and Keltria (1986) and numerous groups split off from us, so to understand the quirks of Druidry in America, as opposed to European groups, you need to start with the beginning. It has very little material about the ancient Druids or Celts, you should only buy ARDA if you are interested in the evolution and thinking of modern Druidism.

I should inform you that a new edition will come out in 2003.

The Anthology is a useful resource for those who cannot make it to the International Druid Archives. It contains a number of useful documents from and about the history of Reformed Druidism, a section on past liturgy which is interesting both for the student of Reformed Druidism and also for any RDNA priest interested in using/creating their own rituals. Overall this is an interesting and worthwhile volume...

However it doesn't always seem to be available...but worry not. Copies of the ARDA are available for sale directly from Loomis House Press at http://www.loomishousepress.com/ and you can also preview the text (or download and print a copy) at http://orgs.carleton.edu/druids/ARDA/

And in a few months an updated version of the Anthology will be hitting bookshelves...I am eagerly awaiting it and it should be available by more or less the same channels when it comes out

The English and Scottish Popular Ballads are, as noted here, out of print in their Dover edition ... but fear not, they are being re-issued (in 5 volumes, 2 of which are actually done) by the folks at Loomis House Press. (I am not affiliated with Loomis in any way; do a Google search if you want to find 'em.) The books are authoritative and complete, and it's disappointing that Amazon doesn't list them.