Goethe referred to the ballad in his genre description as the primordial egg of poetry, which unites the elements of lyric, drama, and epic. Indeed, the ballad features elements from all three genres. It borrows its form from lyric poetry: it is mostly rhymed, has verses and stanzas, and follows a meter. From drama, it takes on the roles of the characters that appear within it. Finally, the ballad draws from epic literature its comprehensive, often thrilling, and sometimes eerie plot. This volume contains a representative selection of ballads from the late 18th to the late 20th century, featuring works by Claudius, Goethe, Schiller, Droste-Hülshoff, Heine, Fontane, C. F. Meyer, Carroll, Liliencron, Wedekind, Morgenstern, Brecht, Kästner, Kaschnitz, Hacks, Müller, and Biermann. Four chapters categorize the texts into fate ballads, historical ballads, nature-magic ballads, and love ballads.