Child Ballad: Difference between revisions

* [[Bed Trick]]

* [[Bride and Switch]]

* [[Came Back Wrong]]: Above all else, never kiss a ghost in a ballad.

* [[Cycle of Revenge]]

* [[Evil Matriarch]]

* [[The Fair Folk]]

* [[Flower Motifs]]

* [[Gold Digger]]

* [[Love Martyr]]

* [[Malicious Slander]]: You can actually die of this, in ballads.

* [[Offing the Offspring]]: "The Cruel Mother" (Child #20), "The Maid and the Palmer" (Child #21)

* [[Our Ghosts Are Different]]: Though, in ballads, it's ''always'' a bad idea to be in love with a dead person, they're not necessarily evil ''per se''. Ghosts and other revenants can pop up to drive their killers crazy ("The Cruel Mother", Child #20), or just to say goodbye ("Sweet William's Ghost", Child #77; "The Wife of Usher's Well", Child #79).

* [[Standard Hero Reward]]: e.g. "The ''Golden Vanity''" (Child #286) {{spoiler|SUBVERTED TO THE MAX!!! The hero is told this is the reward, if he drills holes in the enemy man-o'-war, which he does (In a horribly poetic way: He let the water in, and it dazzled in their eyes, and he sunk them in the Low Lands Low.) He is then [[Did You Actually Believe|betrayed by the captain]] and is abandoned to drown in the ocean.}} [[Standard Hero Reward]] be damned!

* [[Stock Puzzle]]: e.g. "Riddles Wisely Expounded" (Child #1), "Captain Wedderburn's Courtship" (Child #46)

* [[Sweet Polly Oliver]]

* [[Together in Death]]: "Fair Margaret and Sweet William" (Child #74); some variants of "Barbara Allen" (Child #84).

[[Category:Oral Tradition]]

[[Category:Child Ballad]]