Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight

In class we went over Children's Ballads and there respective origin. James Child is the man responsible for gathering and creating many Children's Ballads. After doing research on the Children's Ballads I found that many of the ballad's origins are of Germanic Folklore. Many of the ballads implicate the presence of the supernatural. In the Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight I found that the according to germanic folklore the Elf Knight is called a "Nix' A Nix is a shapeshifting water spirit which would lure women to their doom. Its not implied in many of the versions of the ballad but the Elf Knight has lured many princesses to their doom. However in many versions instead of the knight succeeding in killing his next victim, Lady Isabel uses the Knights obsession with beauty against him. In that moment she slays the elf knight. I found that many of the live song versions of Children's Ballad are very cheery, when in fact I expected them sound more eerie. Mainly because the ballads I read had to do with death.  Above is a master copy I did of an illustration of the Lady Isabel and the Elf sadly I couldn't find the name of the artist.