Body Count: Death in the Child Ballads

Child ballads are those long, bloody songs where everyone dies, right? Half of the ballads do kill off at least one person, usually violently. A ship sinks, a regiment is slain in war, a man kills his pregnant lover, a brother kills his brother or sister, a father kills his daughter, someone dies by poisoning, childbirth, starvation, drowning or plague. In , Dr. Friedman explores all of the Child ballads that involve death in some form (actual or threatened), quoting lines from the Child and Bronson collections to uncover what happened and why.