KINDS AND DATES 61

war, and the squire of low degree. These are ballads which arise
from many motifs which have cohered into a fully developed tale,
which travels as a unit away from its original focus.

These types of ballads are variously distributed in the different
countries, and each has been made, in consequence, the basis of a
theory as to the date and nature of ballads. To take the richest
areas only: Spain has a sturdy tradition of historical and epical
ballads, but borrows material from foreign romances and almost all
her adventure pieces. England and Scotland are poor in epic frag-
ments, mediocre in history, but rich in adventure ballads, with
special reference to the supernatural. In Denmark there are these
things, and a sturdier tradition of epos and history. Germany has
very many semi-popular historical poems,1 of which a considerably
reduced number may be admitted as traditional ballads. There are
a few epical derivatives, less close to their originals than the Danish
Viser'. The lyrical element is strong, and in course of time vir-
tually submerges the narrative; German balladry thus appears
especially songful. If we can accept the cycles of Kiev and Nov-
gorod as historical, Russian 'byliny' are almost wholly historical;
as are also the 'dumi' of the Ukraine. There are no epics extant
related to these pieces, nor much likelihood that there were. The
lack of adventure ballads is compensated by the heavy proportions
of romance in the so-called historical pieces, so that they have been
described, not unjustly, as wholly 'sagenhaft'. The mythological
themes are few; lyrical treatment is kept for other kinds of folk
poetry. In Serbia there were no epics, and no epical ballads. The
historical series is exceptionally fine and veracious. Adventure
ballads fall into a debatable land between the heroics of the men
and the erotics of the women. Lyricism is not a quality of the
'junacke pesme'. In Greece we have epics and ballads in a relation
that has not been made clear. The historical ballads are poorer and
later than in Serbia, and the adventure ballads more important.
The lyrical element in Greek folk-poetry is more prominent, and
is not excluded from narrative pieces. It is in Lithuania and Latvia
that mythological balladry reaches its fullest development. There
are only lyrical ballads, with some narrative intermixed; no ballad
novelettes, and only scattered allusions to historical events. The

1 Collected by R. von Liliencron, Die historischen Volkslieder der Deutschen,
Leipzig, 1865—9, and continued by other collectors for later centuries. The
selection of true ballads from this mass has been made by Erk and Bohme.