English and Scottish Ballads

English and Scottish Ballads brings together a compelling selection of traditional narrative songs from Britain, presented with the care and scholarship that made Francis James Child one of the most influential editors of ballad literature. These enduring tales-passed down through generations-capture the drama of love and loss, loyalty and betrayal, the supernatural and the everyday, all told in the direct, musical language of the folk tradition.

Drawn from the rich English and Scottish tradition, this collection preserves the voice of earlier centuries while offering readers an accessible entry into the world of classic balladry. Whether you are discovering these stories for the first time or returning to them for study and pleasure, the poems in this volume reveal the power of narrative verse to entertain, move, and haunt-line after line, refrain after refrain.

Ideal for readers of folklore, literature, and cultural history, English and Scottish Ballads is a foundational text for anyone interested in the origins of many later poems, novels, and songs. With Francis James Child as your guide, this edition offers a gateway into a tradition where storytelling and song are inseparable, and where the past speaks with striking immediacy.