Yuku free message boards

The traditional ballads of the British Isles are full of lurid murders of all kinds. As John4Y and Masked Marvel have already suggested, in the days before our current mass media, ballad writers and singers passed on the news about killings through their songs, adding gory embellishments as they saw fit. In many ways, they were the tabloid newspapers of their day.

The tradition passed on and survived in Britain's former colonies, notably Australia where, in the 19th century, the dark deeds and violent deaths of notorious bush rangers would be immortalised in topical ballads. "The Streets of Forbes", about the career and gunning down by the police of the bush ranger Ben Hall would be a good example.

Back in the UK, the infamous death of Maria Martin, killed by her treacherous lover at the Red Barn, became the subject of ballads and even a popular stage melodrama.

The "Matty Groves"/"Little Musgrave" family of ballads recounts the murder of an adulterous wife and her lover by the wronged husband.

"Long Lankin", the lurid tale of an evil mass murderer from the borders of England and Scotland, was at one time used to frighten naughty children into good behaviour. Lankin effectively became a bogeyman. "Be good, or Long Lankin will get you!" The origins of the story are lost in the mists of time, but in some versions Lankin is a builder who buils the lord's castle or fortified manor house but is then cheated out of his fee by the stingy aristocrat. In revenge, Lankin woos one of the family's servants (usually identified as the baby's nurse) and gets her to let him into the house at night when the lord is away from home. He slaughters both the lady of the house and her child but is generally caught and hung before the ballad is finished. The treacherous nurse often comes to a sticky end too.

In many murder ballads, a supernatural element is introduced as the ghost of the victim finds some way of informing the living of the identity of his or her murderer. Maria Martin, for example, appears to her father in a dream and reveals where her body is buried beneath the floor of the Red Barn. In "The Two Sisters" ("Twa Sisters"), a harp is made from the breast bone of a murdered girl. When her sister plays the harp, the harp magically sings out and identifies the murderer.

In "The famous flower of serving men", a lady's family is butchered by her mother. The lady escapes by disguising herself as a man and goes off to find work as a servant at the royal court. While hunting one day, the king encounters a mysterious milk-white deer which he follows for a great distance. The deer leads the king to a tree where a bird sits singing in the branches. The bird tells the king about the crime, identifying the murderess and explaining that his favourite servant is really a woman dressed as a man. The king sends his men to arrest the murderess and has her burned at the stake. He then marries his servant, who is really the wronged noblewoman. Although it is not specified, I've always assumed that the milk-white hind represented the spirit of the innocent murdered child, while the bird in some way represented the spirit of the murdered husband. It's a great song, and if you haven't heard Martin Carthy singing it, then you really should look it out.

There are lots of other murder ballads out there, but these are some of my favourites. I guess that humans have always been fascinated by the things that frighten them. I've said that the old traditional murder ballads were a bit like ancient tabloid newspapers. In some ways they were also like pre-cinematic horror films, thrilling their audiences with terrifying and bloody deeds, done safely elsewhere, at some other time, to someone else.

Rusty Red