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There lived a lady by the North Sea shore |
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(Lay the bent to the bonnie broom) |
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Two daughters were the babes she bore |
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(Fa la la la la la la la la la) |
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alternating with each of the lines below> |
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As one grew bright as is the sun, |
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So coal black grew the elder one. |
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A knight came riding to the lady's door, |
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He'd travelled far to be their wooer. |
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He courted one with gloves and rings, |
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But he loved the other above all things. |
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Oh sister will you go with me |
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To watch the ships sail on the sea? |
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She took her sister by the hand |
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And led her down to the North Sea strand. |
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And as they stood on the windy shore |
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The dark girl threw her sister o'er. |
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Sometimes she sank, sometimes she swam, |
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Crying, "Sister, reach to me your hand! |
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"Oh Sister, Sister, let me live, |
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And all that's mine I'll surely give." |
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"(It's) your own true love that I'll have and more, |
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But thou shalt never come ashore." |
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And there she floated like a swan, |
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The salt sea bore her body on. |
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Two minstrels walked along the strand |
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And saw the maiden float to land. |
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They made a harp of her breastbone, |
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Whose sound would melt a heart of stone. |
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They took three locks of her yellow hair, |
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And with them strung the harp so rare. |
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They went into her father's hall |
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To play the harp before them all, |
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But when they laid it on a stone |
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The harp began to play alone. |
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The first string sang a doleful sound: |
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"The bride her younger sister drowned." |
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The second string as that they tried, |
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In terror sits the black-haired bride. |
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The third string sang beneath their bow, |
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"And surely now her tears will flow |
