You can download the 2008 PDF version of the Minnesota Heritage Songbook here. Robert Waltz, the editor of the Heritage Songbook, also authored these books:
- Harry Potter’s Folklore World: On Myth and Magic. A nearly-comprehensive guide to the legends and lore J. K. Rowling used in creating the Harry Potter universe. Compiled to my usual nitpicky standards, but designed to be easy to read and fun. Want to know what Dobby the House Elf has in common with Robin Hood? Why Harry’s Patronus really had to be a stag? Why the guy who bred the Basilisk must have flunked his Greek class? It’s all here. Published by Loomis House Press, and available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Alibris, or if you want to see it in a bookstore, Micawber’s Books in Saint Paul. Dedicated to Sarah Cagley.
- Romancing the Ballad: How Orpheus the Minstrel Became Sir Orfeo. My life’s work, a study of how a legend became a medieval romance became a ballad, and how this affects our understanding of literature and folk song. In the original legend of Orpheus and Euridice, the ending is sad; in the romance, the ending is happy. This fact tells us much about the folk process. Print book, now available from Loomis House Press and Camsco Music. Dedicated to Elizabeth (Elisheva) Rosenberg.
- The Gest of Robyn Hode, text and translation. The “Gest” is the earliest major writing about Robin Hood — although it tells a tale very different from that found in most modern retellings. This version attempts to produce a more accurate text of the long-lost original; it also provides a modernized parallel. Print book, available from Loomis House Press and Camsco Music. Dedicated to Martha Galep.
- The Gest of Robyn Hode: A Critical and Textual Commentary. A companion to the preceding, adding much historical background. Available only as an e-book — but it’s free. Dedicated to Patricia Rosenberg. Download the PDF here, or a a ZIP file with RTF and EPUB (electronic book) versions.
- The Bible in History. A study of the history, folklore, and occasionally even the mathematics underlying the Bible. A sort of dictionary of scholarly material you likely won’t find elsewhere. Free download. Dedicated to Elizabeth (Elisheva) Rosenberg, Patricia Rosenberg, and Catie Jo Pidel. Download the PDF here, or a ZIP file with RTF and EPUB (electronic book) versions.
- An Introduction to Braid Scots. A short vocabulary of Braid Scots, the language of the ordinary people of Scotland, as illustrated especially by their folk songs. Includes a brief introduction, a vocabulary of about a thousand words, and a history of the language. Free download. Dedicated to Mollie Spillman. Download it here.
- The Encyclopedia of New Testament Textual Criticism. This is a PDF based on the contents of a web site I’ve been working on for decades. I do not believe I will ever entirely finish it. But I wanted to make it available. Textual criticism is the process of recovering an ancient document from late and corrupt manuscript copies; New Testament Textual Criticism consists of trying to figure out what the New Testament originally said before scribes messed it up. Dedicated to Dr. Sally Amundson and Dr. Carol Elizabeth Anway and Lily. This version, from July 20, 2013, will probably be the last; the file is almost too large to edit. Download the the PDF here or a ZIP file with RTF and EPUB (electronic book) versions.
- Trouthe Is the Highest Thing. An examination of the virtue of “trouthe” in the romances of Geoffrey Chaucer, particularly the Clerk’s Tale, the Knight’s Tale, the Wife of Bath’s Tale, and the Franklin’s Tale. It is my opinion that this virtue, now almost forgotten, was one that Chaucer either experienced or at least witnessed, possibly in an autistic person, and wished others to adopt. First edition released December 30, 2013; Revised Version released January 27, 2014. Dedicated to Barb Edson, Mathea Bulander, Dorothy and Frederick Waltz, and Aurora Adams. Download the PDF here or a ZIP file with RTF and EPUB (electronic book) versions.
The Minnesota Heritage Songbook itself does not have a dedication, due to lack of space in the original printed version, but is dedicated to my parents, Dorothy and Frederick Waltz. A forthcoming book on folklore and the Harry Potter series is dedicated to Sarah Cagley.
You can also download The Traditional Ballad Index software here. We have software for iPad, PC/Windows (Windows 7.0 or higher), and Macintosh (OS X 10.6 or higher). You can also download the Instructions.
You can also download PDF and EPUB (electronic book) of the electronic books at www.free-ebooks.net. (Feel free to do so; it boosts my download statistics.) And most of them should also be on Google Books.
The Minnesota Heritage Songbook 
Hi, I am trying to reach Robert B Waltz or anybody else who might know a Christmas carol I know from my childhood who, so far as I know, nobody knows. It is a very sad carol about the slaughter of the innocents and it begins, We’ll Journey to Egypt. Please, I am old, and this is a loose end I need to tie up.
I don’t know any carol that starts with those words, I’m afraid. Or even includes them. I suppose you might have learned it from the author of the lyrics…. Do you remember any more? There are traditional carols about the Massacre of the Innocents, the most famous being “The Coventry Carol,” but the one most steeped in tradition probably being “The Carnal and the Crane.” One famous incident in that song is “The Miraculous Harvest”; Joseph and Mary and Jesus, who are fleeing Herod, come upon a farmer sowing his grain. Jesus miraculously causes the grain to mature. When Herod arrives, the farmer tells him that Jesus came just as his seed was sown, but now the grain is ripe, and the pursuers give up the chase because Jesus is long gone.
Other songs which include material about the Massacre of the Innocents include “The Cherry Tree Carol” (some versions; not the most common ones) and a piece in the Oxford Book of Ballads called “The Innocents,” but they don’t have your line. The latter begins
Mark this song, for it is true,
For it is true as clerkes tell:
In old time strange things came to pass,
Great wonder and great marvel was
In Israel.
Hi Robert,
I’m researching The Gest of Robyn Hode and the representation of the aristocracy in the Gest. I’m using your work as a guide and is helping me a lot. However, i need to know a little bit more about some characters of the gest and understand how they are represented. My greatest difficulties are the Justice of England and the importance of the Courtesy for the text, I need to understand more about this notion of Courtesy and how it influences the events of the story.
I would thank you a lot for any guidance, bibliography, or file that you could send me and help me to finish my research.
This isn’t really my area of specialty, but I’d suggest starting with Chaucer, since books on the subject are readily available. The poem “Gentilesse” is a good place to start; also “Truth” and “The Franklin’s Tale.” The Riverside Chaucer (edited by Larry D. Benson) and its bibliography should be helpful. George B. Pace and Alfred David’s volume in the Variorum Chaucer (Volume V: The Minor Poems) could also be helpful, although it’s harder to find and more expensive.
Also, in English literature (as opposed to French), Sir Gawain is the epitome of courtesy. So a good volume on “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” would have a lot you could use. There is also Thomas Hahn’s “Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales,” which has almost all English Gawain material except for “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.”
Finally, consider the Loathly Lady tales: Gower’s “Tale of Florent,” Chaucer’s “Wife of Bath’s Tale,” and “The Marriage of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnall.” I have not yet read Passmore and Carter’s “The English Loathly Lady Tales: Boundaries, Traditions, Motifs” (Studies in Medieval Culture XLVIII), but I think it would give you a lot to work with.
These aren’t books about courtesy, of course — but they show how minstrels and authors understood it and used it, which I suspect is what you want.