At least two English ballads known as The Ballad of Chevy Chase exist, but the nature of ballads mean that many more versions of this once popular song may not have survived.

The extant songs apparently reflect the events of the Battle of Otterburn in 1388, although the account of the battle lacks historically accuracy and may relate to border skirmishes up to fifty years later. A third ballad named "The Battle of Otterburn" assuredly does reflect the historical battle.

The first of the two ballads of Chevy Chase took shape perhaps as early as the 1430s but the earliest record we have of it appears in The Complaint of Scotland one of the first printed books from Scotland. The Complaint of Scotland, printed about 1540, calls the ballad The Hunting of Cheviot.

Sir Philip Sidney (1554 - 1586) wrote in his Defence of Poetry of this early ballad:

"I never Heard the old song of Percie and Douglas, that I found not my heart moved more than with a trumpet"

This seems to have sparked renewed interest in the old ballad and the second of the ballads appears to have emerged shortly afterwards, perhaps around 1620. The second version also attracted high praise: Addison called it "the favourite of the common people of England" and Ben Jonson went as far as to say that he had rather penned it than of all his actual works.

The ballads themselves tell the story of a hunting party in the Cheviot hills 'the chevy chase' by Percy, the English Earl of Northumberland. The Scottish Earl Douglas had forbidden this hunt and the defiance caused a bloody battle which only 110 people survived.

Thomas Percy's Reliques contains both ballads; and Francis James Child's Child Ballads the first.

See also

• Chevy Chase

External link

• Straight Dope Staff Report: Who or what is Chevy Chase? (http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mchevychase.html)
• Ballad lyrics and MIDI (http://www.contemplator.com/child/chevych.html)