Ballad

A ballad is a narrative of a fantastic or dramatic nature. The word itself comes from the Italian “ball”, which means to dance. Once upon a time ballads were called dance songs. In the middle of the century ballads turned into narrative songs. They told about historical events, about people’s life, about knightly deeds. The most common theme of the German ballads was the exposure of the rich, who deceived the people and profited from it. And in the English ballads, which arose from the peasant heroic songs, it was told about the good advocate of the poor Robin Hood. There was a period when the ballad was reborn into a purely literary genre. Continue reading →