The Twa Sisters

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"The Twa 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", and "Two Sisters". The ballad was collected by Francis J. Child (Child 10) and is also listed in the Roud Folk Song Index (Roud 8).

1 Synopsis
2 Parallels in other languages
3 Connections to other ballads
4 Versions
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] 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" 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.

[edit] Parallels in other languages

The theme of this ballad was common in many northen European languages. 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. ("Zlaty kolovrat" in Czech?)^{[citation needed]}

In some of the Norwegian and some of the Swedish variants, the story ends by the instrument being broken and the younger sister coming alive again.

[edit] Connections to other ballads

At least one variant of this ballad 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.

[edit] Versions

Joseph Jacobs recast in fairy tale form as part of English Fairy Tales (1890).
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 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.
Singer Meav released a version under the title The Wicked Sister.
The Irish group Clannad has a version titled 'Two Sisters' on their album Dúlamán.
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 the collection entitled The Real MacColl.
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