A comparison of some European ballads.

This thesis contains some Polish, Slovak, Serbian, and Finnish ballads, collected in America and rendered into English for the first time by the author. There are also some translations of the Finnish ballads from the Kanteletar of Elias Lonnrot. A brief summary of the theories of poetic origins is given, some additional corroborative evidence in behalf of the communal theory of ballad origin included, and a reasonable comprehensive theory suggested. Similarities and differences in form and material among European ballads are analysed. A description of the later history of the ballad concludes the discussion