Fit are Muckle Sangs?

Muckle Sangs is anither name for the traditional ballads that hae been passed doon in faimlies an communities for hunners o years.  They’re really jist stories wi a tune, and because they wir passed on bi wird-o-mou, maist o them hae lots o difrint versions an can be caed bi difrint names.  Ye’ll spot ane or twa like that in oor set o sangs here.

Awa back in the 18th & 19th centuries, a lot o cliver fowk collected these sangs so they widna be lost.  Then, in the second half o the 19th century an American Professor caed Francis James Child gaithered a these sangs the-gither an picked oot the best eens tae be published as “The English and Scottish Popular Ballads”.  So if yi hear fowk spikin aboot The Child Ballads, that’s fit they’re on aboot.  He really got the title the wrang wye roon, as maist o them wir Scottish.  In fact a third o a the best eens wir collected in Aiberdeenshire.  

The ful collection is three hunner an five ballads, but we’re jist gan tae look at a puckle o them wi gweed stories.