Stormy Crossings? Scots-Scandinavian balladic synergies

This article attempts to quantify the Scandinavian influence on the Scottish corpus by looking at the historical and literary context for Scots-Scandinavian synergies in ballads and popular verse, noting the complexities of attributing any chronology and of classifying the direction and flow of such synergies. It then concentrates on specific stylistic and contextual features shared by the two traditions and then consider these in relation to two specific ballads, `Sir Patrick Spens¿ (Child 58) and `Sir Aldingar¿ (Child 59), and attempts to quantify the likely Scandinavian influence on the Scottish corpus. The historical trading routes between Scotland and Scandinavia are well established. This article argues that they traded cultural goods at the same time.