LORD RANDAL

is an anonymous scottish ballad, and at

the origin it was written as a song and it
was transmitted through generations as a
folk ballad
today we know it as one of the so-called
“child ballads” a group of folk songs collected
by Francis J.

MAIN THEMES AND STYLE

Lord Randal is a poem about love, death and

betrayal, is a deep and enchanting meditation
on the mysteries of life

scholars believe the original version of Lord Randal

is an italian ballad called “l'avvelenato”

it talks about the story of Lord Randal, a young

knight who realises he has been poisoned and
reveals his testament ( the preservation of
property was very important ) and he curse
the woman who killed him

the poem is organised in ten stanzas (strofe)

of four lines each

it's a dialogue between Lord Randal and

her mother and he has the form of a narrative
poem, this poem also has a refrain (ripetizione)

The main theme of the poem is betrayal (Tradimento)

Lord Randal has been poisoned by his false love
and with irony recount the details of this episode
to the episode , he returns to his home to see
his mother to find comfort and to get ready to die
and another important theme is the death