[watwut]

> whatever bards actually composed it were writing about something that allegedly happened hundreds of years earlier and using language/style that was itself archaic at the time.

How does that follow? When I read fantasy or legends, they tend to be written in contemporary language of the writer.

Why would a bard literally living from what listeners pay used words his listeners dont know?

This ballad was supposed to be part of oral tradition before being written. Remembering archaic language is harder then remembering something that flows.