The mission of the KelticDead Music initiative is to find tunes and songs from around the world that have  
Celtic, Folk, World, Americana, and Seafaring origins, and arrange them into simple sheet music formats for folk  
musicians to use, as well as provide links for the music that follows the arrangements to help in hearing how it can  
be played. In addition, other links are provided for the stories and possible lyrics about the selections within video-  
based, KDM Broadsides for a music-education experience.  
All the selections and sheet music content provided in the KelticDead Music initiative are from  
traditional, made-public, made-public with credits, or cited credits where applicable. This material  
content is given with permissions. … Patrick O. Young, KelticDead Music.  
Ballad of Impossible Tasks  
It is believed that the tale about a young  
maiden being bewitched or enchanted  
by an elfin knight (or a dark spirit)  
comes out of northern Europe several  
thousand years ago. Over the years the  
tale changed from a dire magical theme  
into one where a girl is being rudely  
propositioned by a cavalier, and she  
rebukes his illicit proposal in a very  
creative way.  
The ballad first made its appearance in  
print in a self-published collection of folk  
tales and ballads by Peter Bucan  
(4 August 1790 to 19 September 1854)  
who collected a wide variety of Scots  
and Northern European ballads and  
folktales. In his collection, the ballad  
was known as the “Elfin Knight,” and he  
asserted it came from the 16th Century.  
Made public painting of a cavalier with a young  
maiden. The fellow on the right is playing a whistle  
or a “horn” (something like an oboe) which was  
popular in the middle ages.  
Peter apprenticed with a Jack-of-all-trades, and in 1814 produced his first book of  
verse which failed to draw any notice. His hometown lacked any printer shops, and  
in 1816, Peter went to Stirling to learn the printing process, and within a matter of  
days he established a business as a printer in Peterhead in March 1816. The Earl  
of Buchan recommended a friend to Peter to fund the purchase of the press.  

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