The fun thing about lots of folk ballads just being multiple versions of the same story is that you start to see certain characters waltz through the lyrics over and over again - so that inspired me to do some little character designs based on this cast of cruel crooks and hapless victims 🎶
Many years ago I wrote an all-purpose folk song, and tried to get as many tropes as possible into one song...
https://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/post/13677732681/a-song-i-wrote-sung-by-the-the-flash-girls-a-long
yourfavouritedoll