Ballad Style

Ballads have a style unique unto themselves, which sets them apart from folk songs and "ballad-esque" songs of later centuries. One of the most noticeable marks of a ballad is the way it's sung--ballads tell a story in a very cold and factual fashion, giving little room to emotion or characterization. Love, death and betrayal are all described in a brisk manner. For example, in the scottish ballad Lamkin, A nurse condemns her mistress to death with a swift:

O sall I kill her, nourice?
Or sall I let her be?
O kill her, kill her, Lamkin,
For she ne'er was good to me.

This trait can be seen in many other ballads: Babylon and Edward are two good examples.

Another characteristic of ballads is their lack of detail. People, places and events are described sparingly. You won't find a florid description of a woman's beauty or a play-by-play account of a battle. Ballads are pared down to their essentials, and leave it up to the listener to fill in the details. For example, the first verse of the ballad Kempowyne would take up at least two chapters in a modern novel:

Her mother died when she was young
which gave her cause to make great moan
her father married the worst woman 
that ever lived in christendom.

In addition to this spare, bare-bones style, many traditional motifs and rote phrases are used. Death by treachery and betrayal, enchanted princesses, scruffy minstrels who turn out to be royalty, a man mistakenly killing the women he loves--these are only some of the common plots found in ballads. Phrases such as "He looked over his castle wall", "go saddle me my milk-white steed","An ill death may he dee","grassy green", and others can be found in many a ballad.

One of the most appealing or annoying aspects of ballads (depending on who you talk to) is the way they jump into a story with both feet and move blithely from situation to situation. Sometimes years can pass between one verse and the next. A good illustration of this technique can be seen in the first verse of the ballad The Demon Lover:

"O Where hae ye been my dearest dear, 
These seven lang years and mair?"
"O I'm come to seek my former vows
that you promised to me before".

This type of storytelling is characteristic of many ballads, and can give immediacy and urgency to a story that a more step-by-step and narrative approach wouldn't.

This is not to say that ballads are entirely lacking in narrative; the earliest ballads found are shorter and choral in nature, but as the ballad-form evolved, the chorus dwindled (or disappeared entirely) and the story became much more detailed. There are some ballads, mostly about a historical figure or event, that number over a hundred verses.

Some ballads can be found in both a short version, and a longer version with two or three intro verses tacked on and descriptive verses fleshing out the body of the ballad.