Editors were content to
study the ballads of their own countryside, or, at most, of Great
Britain. Teutonic and Northern parallels to our ballads were then
adduced, as by Scott and Jamieson. It was later that the ballads
of Europe, from the Faroes to Modern Greece, were compared with our
own, with European Marchen, or children's tales, and with the
popular songs, dances, and traditions of classical and savage
peoples. The results of this more recent comparison may be briefly
stated. Poetry begins, as Aristotle says, in improvisation. Every
man is his own poet, and, in moments of stronge motion, expresses
himself in song. A typical example is the Song of Lamech in
Genesis--
"I have slain a man to my wounding,
And a young man to my hurt."
Instances perpetually occur in the Sagas: Grettir, Egil,
Skarphedin, are always singing. In Kidnapped, Mr. Stevenson
introduces "The Song of the Sword of Alan," a fine example of
Celtic practice: words and air are beaten out together, in the
heat of victory. In the same way, the women sang improvised
dirges, like Helen; lullabies, like the lullaby of Danae in
Simonides, and flower songs, as in modern Italy. Every function of
life, war, agriculture, the chase, had its appropriate magical and
mimetic dance and song, as in Finland, among Red Indians, and among
Australian blacks. "The deeds of men" were chanted by heroes, as
by Achilles; stories were told in alternate verse and prose; girls,
like Homer's Nausicaa, accompanied dance and ball play, priests and
medicine-men accompanied rites and magical ceremonies by songs.
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