Border Ballads Article Index for
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Information About

Border Ballads




Border ballads, like all traditional ballads, were traditionally sung unaccompanied. There may be a repeating motif, but there is no "chorus" as in most pop songs. The supernatural is a common theme in Border ballads, as are recountings of raids and battles.

Representative samples include " Thomas The Rhymer " (aka "True Thomas", Thomas of Erceldoune"), which opens in the English town of Erceldoune; and the very famous " Tam Lin ".

The interested reader is referred to ''Minstrelry of the Scottish Border'' by Sir Walter Scott .