Although separated by centuries, the ballads Puff the Magic Dragon and Lord Randal are very similar. The similarities lie in the mechanics of the ballads, not in the plot as some might think. Still, though, there are many differences. For instance Lord Randal uses the question and answer format, which Puff the Magic Dragon does not.
             Since Jackie Paper abandons Puff as he grows older, and Lord Randal's lover poisons him, both may be considered a domestic tragedy. Also, both ballads use dialect. Lord Randal has a distinctive Old English dialect, using words like d'ye instead of do you, mak for make and wi for with. Puff the Magic Dragon uses a dialect that many people are very familiar with - the modern American dialect. There is also another similarity in the plot of the ballads. Both Puff and Lord Randal are important people. It is visible even in the title of Lord Randal, by simply using the word 'Lord'. Also, at the end of the ballad Lord Randal speaks of gold, silver, houses, lands, and 'milk kye', with kye meaning cow. In Puff the Magic Dragon, however; seems to be your average, run-of-the-mill magical dragon until you find out that noble kings and princes bow when he comes near and that pirate ships lower their flags when Puff roars. In the last stanza, Puff is also described as a might dragon with a fearless roar. This last similarity is important and poses the question: If ballads were written for the common person, and if the main characters of these two ballads were important enough for a common person (or in Lord Randal's time a peasant) to write about them, then might history have written about them. Now magical dragons, as we know, do not exist, save in the imaginations of little boys like Jackie Paper. But Lord Randal was an actual person. His true name was Thomas Randolf and he was a skilled warrior and diplomat who was also the nephew of Robert the Bruce, who later became Robert King of Scots.
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