The Twa Sisters
"The Two Sisters" is a murder ballad that recounts the tale of a girl drowned by her sister. It is first known to have appeared on a broadside (music) in 1656 as "The Miller and the King's Daughter." At least 21 English variants exist under several names, including "Minnorie" or "Binnorie", "The Cruel Sister", "The Wind and Rain", "Two Sisters", and the "Bonnie Bows of London". The ballad was collected by Francis J. Child (Child 10) and is also listed in the Roud Folk Song Index (Roud 8).
Synopsis
Two sisters go down by a body of water, sometimes a river and sometimes the sea. The older one pushes the younger in and refuses to pull her out again; generally the lyrics explicitly state her intent to drown her younger sister. Her motive, when included in the lyrics, is sexual jealousy--in some variants, the sisters are being two-timed by a suitor; in others, the elder sister's affections are not encouraged by the young man. In a few versions, a third sister is mentioned, but plays no significant role in events. In most versions, the older sister is described as dark, while the younger sister is fair.
When the murdered girl's body floats ashore, someone makes a musical instrument out of it, generally a harp or a fiddle, with a frame of bone and the girl's "long yellow hair" (or "golden hair") for strings. The instrument then plays itself and sings about the murder. In some versions, this occurs after the musician has taken it to the family's household, so that the elder sister is publicly revealed (sometimes at her wedding to the murdered girl's suitor) as the murderess.
It should be noted that the variant titled The Two Sisters typically omits the haunted instrument entirely, ending instead with an unrelated person (often a miller) executed for robbing the murdered girl's corpse and the elder sister presumably going unpunished.
Parallels in other languages
The theme of this ballad was common in many northern European languages.[1] There are 125 different variants known in Swedish alone. Its general Scandinavian classification is TSB A 38; and it is (among others) known as Den talende strængelek or De to søstre (DgF 95) in Danish, Hørpu ríma (CCF 136) in Faroese, Hörpu kvæði (IFkv 13) in Icelandic, Dei tvo systar in Norwegian, and De två systrarna (SMB 13) in Swedish. It has also spread further south; for example, as Gosli iz človeškega telesa izdajo umor (A Fiddle Made from a Human Body Reveals a Murder) in Slovenian.
In the Norse variants, the older sister is depicted as dark and the younger as fair, often with great contrast, comparing the one to soot or the other to the sun or milk. This can inspire taunts from the younger about the older's looks.[2]
In most of the Norwegian and some of the Swedish variants, the story ends by the instrument being broken and the younger sister coming alive again.[3] In a few, she was not actually drowned, but saved and nursed back to health; she tells the story herself.[4]
This tale is also found in prose form, in fairy tales such as The Singing Bone, where the siblings are brothers instead of sisters.[5] This is wide-spread throughout Europe; often the motive is not jealousy because of a lover, but the younger child's success in winning the object that will cure the king, or that will win the father's inheritance.[6]
In Polish literature from the
Connections to other ballads
At least one variant of this ballad ("Cruel Sister") uses the refrain from another traditional ballad, "Riddles Wisely Expounded" (Child 1). "Lay the bent to the bonny broom", the main phrase of the refrain, is a variant title of that ballad.
Canadian singer and harpist Loreena McKennitt's song "The Bonny Swans" is a pastiche of several traditional variants of the ballad. The first stanza mentions the third sister, but she subsequently disappears from the narrative. In the music video we see her after the first stanza, but she is not mentioned in the words.
Versions
- Joseph Jacobs recast in fairy tale form as part of English Fairy Tales (1890).[7]
- Pentangle released their album Cruel Sister in 1970, the title track being a rendition of this ballad.
Clandestine (The Haunting), Ceoltoiri, Ekova (Space Lullabies and Other Fantasmagore) and Old Blind Dogs (Close To The Bone) have all released versions under the title Cruel Sister.- Patricia C. Wrede retold it as Cruel Sisters in her Book of Enchantments (1996), telling it from the point of view of the third sister, and giving it a revisionist twist.
- The Celtic group Rù-Rà, consisting of Gaelic singer Maggie Carchrie and keyboardist/percussionist Thomas Leigh, recorded a version of the song on their album "Rù-Rà" entitled "Two Sisters"
- The Danish band Sorten Muld's song '2 Søstre' ('Two Sisters' in English), the English translation of which recounts this folktale.
- Finnish folk music group Gjallarhorn has a Swedish version titled 'Systrarna' ('The Sisters') on their most recent album, Rimfaxe.
- The Swedish group Folk & Rackare recorded a Swedish version, De två systrarna, on their album Folk och rackare from 1976.
- The Irish group Clannad has a version titled 'Two Sisters' on their album Dúlamán.
- go, mordecai! , a band from Buffalo, NY, has a song called 'Sister [Oh, Beautiful One]' based on this balled.
- Aoife Clancy recorded a version titled Two Sisters on her album Soldiers and Dreams.
- Tom Waits includes his own version of Two Sisters on the Bastards disc of his Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards trilogy.
- Folk Metal band In Extremo recorded a German version of the song ("Two Sestra") for the last track of their debut album Weckt Die Toten!.
- Jim Moray included a rendition of this song on his album Sweet England under the title 'Two Sisters'.
- Ewan MacColl recorded a version called 'Minorie' which can be found on several of his recordings.
- Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick recorded a version titled The Bows of London.
- The Armstrong Family, Altan, June Tabor, and Gillian Welch with David Rawlings and David Steele have all recorded versions of the song under the title The Wind and Rain.
- Okkervil River released the song under the title The Dreadful Wind and Rain.
- The Perilous Gard references the ballad and includes a few verses.
- Loreena McKennitt has recorded a song with clear parallels to this one, known as The Bonny Swans
- The Canadian Celtic band The Glengarry Bhoys recorded a version of the song on their album 'Juice' entitled "Bonnie Broom"
- Andrew Bird recorded a version of this song titled 'Two Sisters' as the fifth track on the album Music of Hair
- Méav Ní Mhaolchatha recorded the song entitled The Wicked Sister in her album 'Silver Sea' based on the ballad.
- Jerry Garcia and David Grisman recorded Dreadful Wind and Rain on the Shady Grove album.
See also
References
- ^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 1, p 119, Dover Publications, New York 1965
- ^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 1, p 120, Dover Publications, New York 1965
- ^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 1, p 121, Dover Publications, New York 1965
- ^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 1, p 123, Dover Publications, New York 1965
- ^ Stith Thompson, The Folktale, p 136, University of California Press, Berkeley Los Angeles London, 1977
- ^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 1, p 123, Dover Publications, New York 1965
- ^ Joseph Jacobs, English Fairy Tales, "Binnorie"
External links
- Child Ballads, The Twa Sisters Numerous variants
- The Singing Bone and other tales of Aarne-Thompson type 780 — includes The Twa Sisters and other variants
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