Writing a period, authentic-sounding ballad is harder than it seems at first glance. The concept of a "ballad" is fuzzy to many people; broadside ballads, scottish ballads, and traditional english folk songs are often performed side by side, and it's difficult to distinguish between them if you don't know what to look for.
Many of the ballads used for examples were written in the 17th and even the 18th centuries, and are therefore not "techically" in the SCA's period; but they are part of the same tradition, and share the same style with those precious few which were caught on paper in the 16th century. As the creation and performance of ballads was, for most of its lifespan, an oral tradition, there isn't a great deal of concrete chronological evidence to go on.
This page gives some pointers for those people out there who'd like to know how to write a "real" sounding ballads--the songs sung in previous centuries along the scottish border and elsewhere, many of which are included in Child's famous compendium of ballads.
Note: This page is still under minor construction; not all links are active, and more information will be added to the various pages over the next few weeks.
Written and webbed by Drea Leed