Border ballads are a group of songs in the long tradition of balladry collected from the Anglo-Scottish border.[1][2] Like all traditional ballads, they were traditionally sung unaccompanied. There may be a repeating motif, but there is no "chorus" as in most popular songs. The supernatural is a common theme in border ballads, as are recountings of raids and battles.
- ^ Cohen, Anthony P. (2000). Signifying Identities: Anthropological Perspectives on Boundaries and Contested Values. London: Routledge. p. 123.
- ^ Beattie, William (1952), Border ballads, Penguin, retrieved 12 May 2013