Medieval Ballad

medieval ballad

Lord Randal & A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall Geordie & Fabrizio De Andrè's version

Differences and similarities between the ballads

Start

The ballad

The ballad is a short, anonymous narrative poem or song orally transmitted. Most ballads were accompanied by music so they were sung rather than read. They are simple in form, a traditional ballad is arranged in stanzas and each stanza is a quatrain, a stanza of four lines, and they are followed by a repeated refrain so it was remembered by the audience. Most ballad speak of tragic events mixed with supernatural and religious elements. One of the most famous ballad is the ballad of Lord Randal.

Lord Randal

"Lord Randal" is the title of an ancient English ballad, the autor is unknow ad it cannot be dated precisely but it was surely written in the Middle ages.

There are two climaxes, the first when Randal's mother understand that he was poisoned and the second in the last stanza where he wishes the death of his lover

It is a dialogue between a mother and her son who has been poisoned in the greenwood by his false "true lover" who gave him some food

Oly the third line of each stanza is the plot , all the other words are refrain

We don't know if Lord Randal dies but most ballads have a tragic ending so maybe he dies

After coming home his mother realized that he was poisoned by this girl, in fact his dog and hawk died after eating remains of his meal and from this moment there is a turning point because the history became a sort of horal testament

Lord Randal wants to leave his gold and siver to his sister, twenty four milk cows or his mother, the lands and the house to his bother and the hell and and fire for the girl who has poisoned him

"Lord Randal" has been an ispiration for numerous authors in various parts of the world, who have made it famous by publishing different versions as in the case of Bob Dylan in the song "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

Bob Dylan

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” is one of the most iconic protest songs of the 20th century. Written during the height of the Cold War in 1962, the song is a powerful and poetic call to action, urging listeners to take a stand against the injustices of the time. The title referes to a possible nuclear eplosion wich will cause a radioactive rain and to the rain of missiles caused by the war. This song talks about universal themes such as war, human right and the defense of our enviroment and nature. The atmosphere is sad because his words recall death, blood and sufferings.

differences and Similarities

They have the same structure, there is the refrain and they are both divided in stanzas, even if in the Bob Dylan's version they are longer.

Bob dylan's version is a dialogue between a father and his son that isn't born yet instead in Lord Randal it is a dialogue between a mother and his son.

They both deal with a tragic theme but they are different in the meaning and in the content.

All the stanzas of the two ballads open with a question and an answer ending with a refrain and they are accompained by music and have a colloquial language.

The ending is different because in Lord Randal it is tragic, Lord Randal dies and he wishes hell and fire to his lover, instead in the Bob Dylan version there is a symbol of hope, he hopes that this war will end, in fact the last stanza is in the future and he mentions the rainbow that is a symbol of peace and hope.

Geordie &Fabrizio De Andrè's version

Geordie

This is another one of the most famous english ballad, it is anonymous and is dated back to the XVI century.

The ballad of Geordie belongs to the topic of outlaws, in fact in this ballad there is the common law, the law introduced by Henry II wich was based on similar cases wich occured all over the country.It talks about a man, Geordie, who stole sixteen of the king's wild deer in the park so he has to be arrested and hanged. We meet a young girl who was Geordie's wife and she was pregnant (she had two children and she was waiting for another one), she asks for her pony because she wants to go to the London's Court of Justice to ask the judge to save Geordie's life. While he arrives there, she meets some people who were waiting to meet the judge and when she talks to him, the judge tells her it's too late because Geordie had already been hanged so there's nothing to do, but she asks him to hang Geordie in a golden chain because he came from a noble family.

The narrator is inside the ballad as a character and he tells us the time and the place of the story that happens in London on the Tower Bridge in a misty morning, so we can say that this ballad isn't only a dialogue, like Lord Randal, but also a description. The ending is tragic and the atmosphere is sad, it refers to death and violence. It is divided in stanzas of four lines containg refrain, repetition, allitteration, enjambement and climax (when the judge tells her that Geordie had already been hanged).

De Andrè's version

The Geordie ballad didn't fail to be a source of inspiration for the contemporary singer-songwriters. One of the most famous is the Geordie ballad by Fabrizio De Andrè which he reinterpreted according to his style in 1966. The plot is more or less identical to the original version although some things have been changed compared to it, he added some lines to make the song more poetic. Both of them are divided in seven four-lines stanzas, the original ballad is wrote in old english so there are many differences within the italian translation, for example De Andrè writes that Geordie stole six deer of the king and sold them in want of some money, it seems that De Andrè wants to justify the crime of Geordie that had probaly the necessity of stealing to support his family

the END

by Michela De Vivo