When Led Zeppelin dropped Gallows Pole on Led Zeppelin III in 1970, most listeners heard a modern rock anthem. Folklore scholars heard something else entirely: Child 95, The Maid Freed from the Gallows. This episode traces the life of Francis James Child, the Harvard scholar who spent his career hunting down 305 traditional English and Scottish ballads before he believed the Industrial Revolution would silence them forever. Inspired by Danish scholar Svend Grundtvig, Child built a numbered classification system that placed regional variants side by side so readers could watch a single story mutate across towns, singers, and centuries.

The conversation digs into the dark subject matter of the ballads, from murder and betrayal to enchantment and supernatural revenge, and why grim songs served as a coping mechanism for people without political ...