I have been waiting for this book for a long time. This is not to say that David has been behind-hand, but rather that it is a very useful combination of introduction and detailed examination of a great tradition. It is well
known that “traditional” singers rarely differentiate between ballads and the myriad other songs that pass for traditional

McKean, Thomas A.

Sapientia

notas e recensões349suas responsabilidades culturais, publicou este volume e sem dúvida os que nesta série se lhe seguirão. David Atkinson, The English Traditional Ballad: Theory, Method, and Practice, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2002Thomas A. McKean*I have been waiting for this book for a long time. This is not to say that David has been behind-hand, but rather that it is a very useful combination of introduction and detailed examination of a great tradition. It is well known that “traditional” singers rarely differentiate between ballads and the myriad other songs that pass for traditional. Balladry is envisaged here as an expansive genre, part of a continuum of folk song with a more or less explicit narrative element, which certainly embraces songs that for good historical reasons were not included by Child [in The English and Scottish Popular Ballads], and which accordingly does not seem to demand strict definition. (p. ix)Prefaced by this neat sleight of hand, Atkinson is able to make interesting links and connections between the “ballads” under discussion and other folk songs related or in some way analogous to them. In addition, The English Traditional Ballad goes well beyond the concerns implied by its title through elegant and judicious use of European and North American criticism. The “English” of the title is shorthand, of course, “used to stand for the closely related family of languages, dialects, and usages spoken throughout England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, North America, and elsewhere — everywhere these songs have been sung” (p. ix). Many will be familiar, too, with David’s part-time crusade to re-emphasise the English content of Francis Child’s English and Scottish Popular Ballads, redressing the common (and, of course, correct) perception that the best of Child’s material came from Scotland. With that in mind, most of the discussions of specific ballads, or types, draw on previously under-analysed material from English counties and collectors. This welcome emphasis —for example, in a chapter devoted to English variants of “The Unquiet Grave”— shows how rewarding such a change of focus can be, and how rich the field still is, even after more than a century of modern scholarship.* The Elphinstone Institute. University of Aberdeen. MacRobert Building. King’s College. Aberdeen. AB24 5UA Scotland.350E.L.O., 13-14 (2007-08) The book’s subtitle, “Theory, Method, and Practice”, is exemplified throughout. To begin with, the introduction (“Accessing ballad tradition”) presents a perceptive, common sense picture of the ballad genre and its academic, theoretical offshoots, taking in major trends and schools of thought, and including a very useful review of the question of literacy and non-literacy in relation to the oral tradition. The five central chapters then exemplify these methodologies and themes, yielding the promised method and practice.  It is no surprise that Atkinson takes Francis James Child’s English and Scottish Popular Ballads as his starting point, though the fact that he discusses nearly two hundred different Child ballad types may come as something of a shock to those of us who, at conferences over the years, have watched him whittle the number of songs deemed truly worthy of inclusion down to around three examples. It would, perhaps, have been as well to state that it is English-language ballad studies that “have been dominated by the 305 sets of song texts” (p. ix) in the Child collection, as our continental colleagues in ballad studies have no such fealty to that particular collection, or its avowed completeness. Five meticulous case studies make up the main body of the book: “The lover’s tasks in ‘The Unquiet Grave’”, “Comic ballads and married life”, “Incest and ‘Edward’”, “Motivation, gender, and talking birds”, and “Magical corpses and the discovery of murder”. A variety of approaches is used, notably thematic and literary interpretation as pursued by D. K. Wilgus, Barre Toelken and others, and Proppian analysis of tale-roles, as pioneered by David Buchan in relation to ballads. Throughout, one finds English, Scottish, Irish, and extensive continental comparisons, largely drawing on the work of the Kommission für Volksdichtung, to which David has contributed for many years. Atkinson’s scholarship is worn lightly, drawn on with fluency, and the notes are copious and thorough without ever detracting from the book’s flow, in any way. Thankfully, unwieldy terms like “transformativity” only make an occasional appearance and they must, of course, be acknowledged when applying theoretical approaches. The winningly-titled “Motivation, gender and talking birds” is particularly rewarding; constantly shifting interpretations of traditional song across time and space (p. 180) are anchored around the central issue of truth in folksong. Verity is undoubtedly important for many traditional singers, having a profound effect on their perceptions of characters” motivation, and therefore on the very validity of a song and its significance. In this chapter, careful readings, coupled with singers’ reflections on their own songs, reveal a great deal. Particularly well-done is the discussion of gender here, which focuses solely on the data at hand, namely songs and oral testimony, while avoiding fanciful excursions into modern-day sexual politics. Atkinson is also careful to avoid privileging the academic’s interpretation over that of the singers themselves (p. 180) and, while academics are naturally past masters notas e recensões351at extrapolating great meanings out of the littlest signs, I welcome the up-front acknowledgement, in “Incest and ‘Edward’”, that “it is necessary to keep a sense of proportion, for while incest is supposedly well known as one of the famous ballad themes […] it is dealt with explicitly in only a handful of types” (p. 108). Having said that, of course, Atkinson goes on to explore one of balladry’s most powerful social motifs to great effect.As one might expect from the methodical and well-read author of English Folk Song — An Introductory Bibliography, there is an expansive thirty-two page list of books consulted, a four-page discography and useful song title and general indexes. A measure of the book’s success is that one is drawn to listen to any number of the recordings listed in the discography, as well as to consult the literature cited. The introduction and conclusion, in particular, would be useful in the teaching of literature and ballad studies; the case study sections, while less generally applicable, are exemplary, which will come as no surprise to those who know Atkinson’s work. The English Traditional Ballad’s combination of survey, synthesis and close analysis make it an essential resource for aficionados, teachers and libraries.Germán Conde Tarrío (dir.), El componente etnolingüístico de la paremiología, Fernelmont, Editions Modulaires Européennes, 2007. ISBN 978-2-930481-34-0Béatrice Martínez*El profesor de la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela Germán Conde Tarrío es un experto en fraseología y paremiología y el autor del primer repertorio de frases proverbiales en gallego y sus correspondencias al español y francés. También ha viajado a numerosas universidades de todo el mundo impartiendo sus enseñanzas y pasa buena parte del año impartiendo conferencias sobre su especialidad. Con este libro, que resulta ser un compendio del estudio de doce paremiólogos sobre las paremias desde un punto de vista etnológico, el lector se deleitará con el reencuentro del pasado.El libro recoge un total de doce artículos, todos ellos presentados en el Congreso Internacional de Fraseología y de Paremiología, que tuvo lugar en Santiago de Compostela (España) en septiembre de 2006. Según afirma Germán Conde en el prólogo, “este libro, […] quiere mostrar la investigación de doce paremiólogos que, a partir del estudio de un corpus de paremias, nos describen maneras de ser, nos presentan una determinada sociedad, nos hablan de costumbres ya desaparecidas, etc.” (pp. 5-6).* Calle Morata, 4. 28370 Chinchón. Madrid. España. <bmartinez.bmartinez@gmail.com>

David Atkinson, The english traditional ballad: theory, method, and practice, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2002

Universidade do Algarve

notas e recensões
349
suas responsabilidades culturais, publicou este volume e sem dúvida os que 
nesta série se lhe seguirão. 
David Atkinson, The English Traditional Ballad: Theory, Method, 
and Practice, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2002
Thomas A. McKean*
I have been waiting for this book for a long time. This is not to say that 
David has been behind-hand, but rather that it is a very useful combination 
of introduction and detailed examination of a great tradition. It is well 
known that “traditional” singers rarely differentiate between ballads and 
the myriad other songs that pass for traditional. 
Balladry is envisaged here as an expansive genre, part of a continuum of folk 
song with a more or less explicit narrative element, which certainly embraces 
songs that for good historical reasons were not included by Child [in The 
English and Scottish Popular Ballads], and which accordingly does not seem to 
demand strict definition. (p. ix)
Prefaced by this neat sleight of hand, Atkinson is able to make interesting 
links and connections between the “ballads” under discussion and other folk 
songs related or in some way analogous to them. In addition, The English 
Traditional Ballad goes well beyond the concerns implied by its title through 
elegant and judicious use of European and North American criticism. 
The “English” of the title is shorthand, of course, “used to stand for the 
closely related family of languages, dialects, and usages spoken throughout 
England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, North America, and elsewhere — 
everywhere these songs have been sung” (p. ix). Many will be familiar, 
too, with David’s part-time crusade to re-emphasise the English content of 
Francis Child’s English and Scottish Popular Ballads, redressing the common 
(and, of course, correct) perception that the best of Child’s material came 
from Scotland. With that in mind, most of the discussions of specific ballads, 
or types, draw on previously under-analysed material from English counties 
and collectors. This welcome emphasis —for example, in a chapter devoted 
to English variants of “The Unquiet Grave”— shows how rewarding such a 
change of focus can be, and how rich the field still is, even after more than 
a century of modern scholarship.
* The Elphinstone Institute. University of Aberdeen. MacRobert Building. King’s College. 
Aberdeen. AB24 5UA Scotland.
350
E.L.O., 13-14 (2007-08) 
The book’s subtitle, “Theory, Method, and Practice”, is exemplified 
throughout. To begin with, the introduction (“Accessing ballad tradition”) 
presents a perceptive, common sense picture of the ballad genre and its 
academic, theoretical offshoots, taking in major trends and schools of 
thought, and including a very useful review of the question of literacy and 
non-literacy in relation to the oral tradition. The five central chapters then 
exemplify these methodologies and themes, yielding the promised method 
and practice.  
It is no surprise that Atkinson takes Francis James Child’s English and 
Scottish Popular Ballads as his starting point, though the fact that he discusses 
nearly two hundred different Child ballad types may come as something 
of a shock to those of us who, at conferences over the years, have watched 
him whittle the number of songs deemed truly worthy of inclusion down to 
around three examples. It would, perhaps, have been as well to state that it 
is English-language ballad studies that “have been dominated by the 305 sets 
of song texts” (p. ix) in the Child collection, as our continental colleagues in 
ballad studies have no such fealty to that particular collection, or its avowed 
completeness. 
Five meticulous case studies make up the main body of the book: 
“The lover’s tasks in ‘The Unquiet Grave’”, “Comic ballads and married 
life”, “Incest and ‘Edward’”, “Motivation, gender, and talking birds”, and 
“Magical corpses and the discovery of murder”. A variety of approaches 
is used, notably thematic and literary interpretation as pursued by D. K. 
Wilgus, Barre Toelken and others, and Proppian analysis of tale-roles, as 
pioneered by David Buchan in relation to ballads. Throughout, one finds 
English, Scottish, Irish, and extensive continental comparisons, largely 
drawing on the work of the Kommission für Volksdichtung, to which David 
has contributed for many years. Atkinson’s scholarship is worn lightly, 
drawn on with fluency, and the notes are copious and thorough without ever 
detracting from the book’s flow, in any way. Thankfully, unwieldy terms like 
“transformativity” only make an occasional appearance and they must, of 
course, be acknowledged when applying theoretical approaches. 
The winningly-titled “Motivation, gender and talking birds” is particularly 
rewarding; constantly shifting interpretations of traditional song across 
time and space (p. 180) are anchored around the central issue of truth in 
folksong. Verity is undoubtedly important for many traditional singers, 
having a profound effect on their perceptions of characters” motivation, and 
therefore on the very validity of a song and its significance. In this chapter, 
careful readings, coupled with singers’ reflections on their own songs, reveal 
a great deal. Particularly well-done is the discussion of gender here, which 
focuses solely on the data at hand, namely songs and oral testimony, while 
avoiding fanciful excursions into modern-day sexual politics. Atkinson is 
also careful to avoid privileging the academic’s interpretation over that of the 
singers themselves (p. 180) and, while academics are naturally past masters 
notas e recensões
351
at extrapolating great meanings out of the littlest signs, I welcome the up-
front acknowledgement, in “Incest and ‘Edward’”, that “it is necessary to 
keep a sense of proportion, for while incest is supposedly well known as one 
of the famous ballad themes […] it is dealt with explicitly in only a handful 
of types” (p. 108). Having said that, of course, Atkinson goes on to explore 
one of balladry’s most powerful social motifs to great effect.
As one might expect from the methodical and well-read author of English 
Folk Song — An Introductory Bibliography, there is an expansive thirty-two 
page list of books consulted, a four-page discography and useful song title 
and general indexes. A measure of the book’s success is that one is drawn 
to listen to any number of the recordings listed in the discography, as well 
as to consult the literature cited. The introduction and conclusion, in 
particular, would be useful in the teaching of literature and ballad studies; 
the case study sections, while less generally applicable, are exemplary, which 
will come as no surprise to those who know Atkinson’s work. The English 
Traditional Ballad’s combination of survey, synthesis and close analysis make 
it an essential resource for aficionados, teachers and libraries.
Germán Conde Tarrío (dir.), El componente etnolingüístico de la 
paremiología, Fernelmont, Editions Modulaires Européennes, 2007. 
ISBN 978-2-930481-34-0
Béatrice Martínez*
El profesor de la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela Germán Conde 
Tarrío es un experto en fraseología y paremiología y el autor del primer 
repertorio de frases proverbiales en gallego y sus correspondencias al español 
y francés. También ha viajado a numerosas universidades de todo el mundo 
impartiendo sus enseñanzas y pasa buena parte del año impartiendo 
conferencias sobre su especialidad. Con este libro, que resulta ser un 
compendio del estudio de doce paremiólogos sobre las paremias desde un 
punto de vista etnológico, el lector se deleitará con el reencuentro del pasado.
El libro recoge un total de doce artículos, todos ellos presentados en el 
Congreso Internacional de Fraseología y de Paremiología, que tuvo lugar 
en Santiago de Compostela (España) en septiembre de 2006. Según afirma 
Germán Conde en el prólogo, “este libro, […] quiere mostrar la investigación 
de doce paremiólogos que, a partir del estudio de un corpus de paremias, 
nos describen maneras de ser, nos presentan una determinada sociedad, nos 
hablan de costumbres ya desaparecidas, etc.” (pp. 5-6).
* Calle Morata, 4. 28370 Chinchón. Madrid. España. <bmartinez.bmartinez@gmail.com>


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David Atkinson, The english traditional ballad: theory, method, and practice, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2002

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