Murder Ballad - History of Murder Ballads

History of Murder Ballads

By the end of the first century of the early modern period in Europe, ballads were being printed and sold on broadsheets. Murder ballads make up a notable portion of traditional ballads, many of which originated in Scandinavia, England, and Scotland in the premodern era. In those, while the murder is committed, the murderer usually suffers justice at the hands of the victim's family, even if the victim and murderer are related (see "Edward/Son David," "The Cruel Brother," and "The Two Sisters" for examples). In these ballads murderous women usually burn while males hang - see "Lamkin" and some Scottish versions of "The Two Sisters."

Often the details and locales for a particular murder ballad change as it is sung over time, reflecting the audience and the performer. For example, "Knoxville Girl" is essentially the same ballad as "The Wexford Girl" with the setting transposed from Ireland to Tennessee - the two of them are based on "The Oxford Girl," the original murder ballad set in England.

American murder ballads are often versions of older Old World ballads with any elements of supernatural retribution removed. For example, the English ballad "The Gosport Tragedy" of the 1750s had both murder and vengeance on the murderer by the ghosts of the murdered woman and her unborn baby, who call up a great storm to prevent his ship sailing before tearing him apart. In contrast, the Kentucky version, "Pretty Polly," is a stark murder ballad ending with the murder and burial of the victim in a shallow grave. Olive Burt notes that the murder ballad tradition of the American Old West is distinct to some extent from that of ballads rooted in the old broadside tradition, noting that:

Western settlers found murder and bloodshed fascinating, and composed local ballads. But with printing facilities scarce, many of these items were not published at all while others saw fame only briefly in the columns of the local newspapers. As a result true western ballads of murder — except those about such famous outlaws as Jesse James, Cole Younger, Sam Bass, and their ilk — have been entirely lost, or are known only to the children of those who knew and sang them. These children are now, of course, old men and women. Some of the best examples of western murder ballads will be lost forever when these people die.