ABSTRACT
The changes that occurred in the tradition may be studied in some detail in the corpus of one of Buchan’s contributors, James Nicol of Strichen. His ballads show what happened to the singers and songs of the Northeast in the transitional period; they show, in general, the effect of the new social influences on the stories, and they show, in particular, the effect of literacy on the oral technique of composition. Surprisingly, perhaps, they have escaped the general censure of Buchan’s texts. Child, for example, had no doubts about their authenticity as he, while lamenting the ‘flimsy and unjointed’ condition of ‘Young Bearwell’ (302), declared that it required ‘a respectable voucher, such as Mr. Nicol undoubtedly was, for the other five pieces communicated by him were all above suspicion, and have a considerable value’. 1
