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Chapter 13
Death according to Taleroles
This chapler proposes a talerole analysis of the Newfoundland classical ballads
relating to death as a means to decrypt the worldview inherent to its texiS. This
investigation is carried across the various ballad subgenres, and as such yields a holistic
schema illuminating the function and meaning of the ballad revenant locally.
13.1. The Ballads Relating to Death
In a first evaluation of the Newfoundland classical ballad repertoire, Colin Quigley
noted a panicular concern with death:
We can see a complex of ballads, utilizing a number of similar motifs,
which address one central issue, the separation of lovers by death. We
have also been told thm these ballad types are unusual in North America
generally and yet we find them in great density in Newfoundland and
Labrador. 1
In the subsequent publication of his data, he further observed the prominence of the
revenant mOlif and its occurrence in unfulfilled love stories. He proposed that the revenant
is the most common supernatural element and dramas of frustrated love, the most distinct
story-type in this corpus. Beside the revenant, he drew attention to the presence of dream
motifs, and pointed out how these particular emphases indeed suggested a definite concern,
to be further explored in the light of the local culture:
From this survey, it is at least clear that the tragic and romantic ballads,
stories of love won, lost, stolen, and revenged, are the most popular of the
Child corpus. They focus on situations of moral imporl. While a
closer look at the texts might reveal cultural patterns in their implicit
values, we can see even at this level an unusually strong emphasis on the
central love relationship, particularly the difficulties and moral issues of
separation. Such a concern may well renect the life of a fishing people
among whom death at sea and extended absence from the horne were
problems to be met with everyday. We have also found a concern for the
1MUNFLA inS 80-124, p. 28.