C.

D.

E.

A. a.

b.

B. b.

C. a.

b.

D.

E.

10
THE TWA SISTERS

This is one of the very few old ballads which are not extinct as tradition in the British Isles. Even drawing-room versions are spoken of as current, "generally traced to some old nurse, who sang them to the young ladies."[126] It has been found in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, and was very early in print. Dr Rimbault possessed and published a broadside of the date 1656[127] (A a), and the same copy is included in the miscellany called Wit Restor'd, 1658. Both of these name "Mr Smith" as the author; that is, Dr James Smith, a well-known writer of humorous verses, to whom the larger part of the pieces in Wit Restor'd has been attributed. If the ballad were ever in Smith's hands, he might possibly have inserted the three burlesque stanzas, 11-13; but similar verses are found in another copy (L a), and might easily be extemporized by any singer of sufficiently bad taste. Wit and Drollery, the edition of 1682, has an almost identical copy of the ballad, and this is repeated in Dryden's Miscellany, edition of 1716, Part III, p. 316. In 1781 Pinkerton inserted in his Tragic Ballads one with the title 'Binnorie,' purporting to be from Scottish tradition. Of twenty-eight couplets, barely seven are genuine. Scott printed in 1802 a copy (C) compounded from one "in Mrs Brown's MS." (B b) and a fragment of fourteen stanzas which had been transcribed from recitation by Miss Charlotte Brooke, adopting a burden found in neither.[128] Jamieson followed, four years after, with a tolerably faithful, though not, as he says, verbatim, publication of his copy of Mrs Brown's ballad, somewhat marred, too, by acknowledged interpolations. This text of Mrs Brown's is now correctly given, with the whole or fragments of eleven others, hitherto unpublished.

The ballad is as popular with the Scandinavians as with their Saxon cousins. Grundtvig, 'Den talende Strengeleg,' No 95, gives nine Danish versions and one stanza of a tenth; seven, A-E, in II, 507 ff, the remainder, H-K, in III, 875 ff. One more, L, is added by Kristensen, No 96, I, 253. Of these, only E had been previously printed. All are from tradition of this century.

There are two Icelandic versions, A from the 17th, B from the 19th, century, printed in Íslenzk Fornkvæði, No 13, 'Hörpu kvæði.'

Of twelve Norwegian versions, A, by Moe, "is printed in Norske Universitets og Skole-Annaler for 1850, p. 287," and in Moe's Samlede Skrifter, II, 118, 'Dæ bur ein Mann hær utmæ Aa;' B, by Lindeman, Annaler, as before, "p. 496," and in his Norske Fjeldmelodier, vol. I, Tekst-Bilag, p. 4, No 14, 'Dei tvæ Systa;' C, by Landstad, 'Dei tvo systar,' No 53, p. 480; D-L are described by Professor Bugge in Grundtvig, III, 877 f; M "is printed in Illustreret Nyhedsblads Nytaarsgave for 1860, p. 77, Christiania."

Four Färöe versions are known: A, 'Hörpuríma,' "in Svabo's MS., No 16, I, 291," incorrectly printed by Afzelius, I, 86, and accurately, from a copy furnished by Grundtvig, in Bergström's edition of Afzelius, II, 69; B, a compound of two versions taken down by Pastor Lyngbye and by Pastor Schröter, in Nyeste Skilderie af Kjøbenhavn, 1821, col. 997 ff; C, a transcript from recitation by Hammershaimb (Grundtvig); D, "in Fugloyjarbók, No 31."

Swedish versions are: A, 'Den underbara Harpan,' Afzelius, No 17, I, 81, new ed., No 16, 1, I, 72: B, 'De två Systrarne,' Afzelius, No 69, III, 16, new ed., No 16, 2, I, 74: C, D, E, unprinted copies in Cavallius and Stephens's collection: F, 'De två Systrarne,' Arwidsson, No 99, II, 139: G, 'Systermordet,' E. Wigström, Skånska Visor, p. 4, and the same, Folkdiktning, etc., No 7, p. 19: H, Rancken, Några Prof af Folksång, No 3, p. 10. Afzelius, moreover, gives variations from four other copies which he had collected, III, 20 ff, new ed., II, 74 ff; and Rancken from three others. Both of the editors of the new Afzelius have recently obtained excellent copies from singers. The ballad has also been found in Finnish, Bergström's Afzelius, II, 79.

There is a remarkable agreement between the Norse and English ballads till we approach the conclusion of the story, with a natural diversity as to some of the minuter details.

The sisters are king's daughters in English A, B, C, H, O (?), P, Q, R a, and in Swedish B and two others of Afzelius's versions. They are an earl's daughters in Swedish F, and sink to farmer's daughters in English R b, c,[129] Swedish A, G, Norwegian C.

It is a thing made much of in most of the Norse ballads that the younger sister is fair and the older dark; the younger is bright as the sun, as white as ermine or as milk, the elder black as soot, black as the earth, Icelandic A, Swedish A, B, G, Danish A, D, etc.; and this difference is often made the ground for very unhandsome taunts, which qualify our compassion for the younger; such as Wash all day, and you will be no whiter than God made you, Wash as white as you please, you will never get a lover, Färöe A, B, Norwegian A, C, etc. This contrast may possibly be implied in "the youngest was the fairest flower," English F, G, Q ["sweetest," D], but is expressed only in M, "Ye was fair and I was din" (dun), and in P a, "The old was black and the young are fair."

The scene of action is a seashore in Icelandic and Färöe A, B, Norwegian A, Swedish A, B, G, H, and in all the Danish complete copies: a seashore, or a place where ships come in, in English A, B a, D-I, Q, R a, T, but in all save the last of these (the last is only one stanza) we have the absurdity of a body drowned in navigable water being discovered floating down a mill-stream.[130] B c has "the deep mill-dam;" C "the river-strand," perhaps one of Scott's changes; M, "the dams;" L, O, P, R b c, a river, Tweed mill-dam, or the water of Tweed. Norwegian B has a river.

The pretence for the older sister's taking the younger down to the water is in English A-E, G, H, I, O, Q, to see their father's ships come in; in Icelandic B to wash their silks;[131] in most of the Norse ballads to wash themselves, so that, as the elder says, "we may be alike white," Danish C-H, Norwegian A, C, Swedish F, G, Färöe A, B. Malice prepense is attributed to the elder in Swedish B, F, Norwegian C, Danish E, F, G: but in Färöe A, B, Norwegian A, B, and perhaps some other cases, a previous evil intent is not certain, and the provocations of the younger sister may excuse the elder so far.

The younger is pushed from a stone upon which she sits, stands, or steps, in English B, C, E-H, M, O, Q, Icelandic A, B, Färöe A, B, Norwegian A, B, C, Danish A-E, H, L, Swedish G, H, and Rancken's other copies.

The drowning scene is the same in all the ballads, except as to one point. The younger sister, to save her life, offers or consents to renounce her lover in the larger number, as English B-E, G, H, I, M, P, Q, Danish A-D, F, G, I, Swedish A-D, G, H; and in Icelandic B and "all the Färöe" ballads she finally yields, after first saying that her lover must dispose of himself. But Swedish F, with more spirit, makes the girl, after promising everything else, reply:

In this refusal concur Icelandic A, Danish E, H, L, and all the Norwegian versions except L.

Swedish A, G, and Rancken's versions (or two of them) make the younger sister, when she sees that she must drown, send greetings to her father, mother, true-love [also brother, sister, Rancken], and add in each case that she is drinking, or dancing, her bridal in the flood, that her bridal-bed is made on the white-sand, etc.

The body of the drowned girl is discovered, in nearly all the English ballads, by some member of the miller's household, and is taken out of the water by the miller. In L b, which, however, is imperfect at the beginning, a harper finds the body. In the Icelandic ballads it is found on the seashore by the lover; in all the Norwegian but M by two fishermen, as also in Swedish D [fishermen in Swedish B]; in all the Färöe versions and Norwegian M by two "pilgrims;"[132] in Danish A-F, L, and Swedish C by two musicians, Danish H, Swedish A, G, one. Danish G, which is corrupted at the close, has three musicians, but these simply witness and report the drowning.

According to all complete and uncorrupted forms of the ballad, either some part of the body of the drowned girl is taken to furnish a musical instrument, a harp or a viol,[133] or the instrument is wholly made from the body. This is done in the Norse ballads by those who first find the body, save in Swedish B, where fishermen draw the body ashore, and a passing "speleman" makes the instrument. In English it is done by the miller, A; by a harper, B, C, G, L b (the king's harper in B); by a fiddler, D, E, I, L a (?), O, P (the king's fiddler, O (?), P); by both a fiddler and the king's harper, H; in F by the father's herdsman, who happens to be a fiddler.

Perhaps the original conception was the simple and beautiful one which we find in English B and both the Icelandic ballads, that the king's harper, or the girl's lover, takes three locks of her yellow hair to string his harp with. So we find three tets of hair in D, E, I, and three links in F, P, used, or directed to be used, to string the fiddle or the fiddle-bow, and the same, apparently, with Danish A. Infelicitous additions were, perhaps, successively made; as a harp-frame from the breast-bone in English C, and fiddle-pins formed of the finger-joints, English F, O, Danish B, C, E, F, L. Then we have all three: the frame of the instrument formed from the breast (or trunk), the screws from the finger-joints, the strings from the hair, Swedish A, B, G, Norwegian A, C, M. And so one thing and another is added, or substituted, as fiddle-bows of the arms or legs, Swedish C, D, Danish H, English L a; a harp-frame from the arms, Norwegian B, Färöe A; a fiddle-frame from the skull, Swedish C, or from the back-bone, English L b; a plectrum from the arm, Färöe B; strings from the veins, English A; a bridge from the nose, English A, L a; "hørpønota" from the teeth, Norwegian B; till we end with the buffoonery of English A and L a.

Swedish H has nothing about the finding of the body. Music is wanted for the bridal, and a man from another village, who undertakes to furnish it, looks three days for a proper tree to make a harp of. The singer of this version supplied the information, lost from the ballad, that the drowned sister had floated ashore and grown up into a linden, and that this was the very tree which was chosen for the harp. (See, further on, a Lithuanian, a Slovak, and an Esthonian ballad.)

All the Norse ballads make the harp or fiddle to be taken to a wedding, which chances to be that of the elder sister with the drowned girl's betrothed.[134] Unfortunately, many of the English versions are so injured towards the close that the full story cannot be made out. There is no wedding-feast preserved in any of them. The instrument, in A, B, C, H, is taken into the king's presence. The viol in A and the harp in H are expressly said to speak. The harp is laid upon a stone in C, J, and plays "its lone;" the fiddle plays of itself in L b.[135] B makes the harper play, and D, F, K, O, which say the fiddle played, probably mean that there was a fiddler, and so perhaps with all the Norse versions; but this is not very material, since in either case the instrument speaks "with most miraculous organ."

There are three strings made from the girl's hair in Icelandic A, B, English B [veins, English A], and the three tets or links in English D, E, F, I, P were no doubt taken to make three strings originally. Corresponding to this are three enunciations of the instrument in English A, B, C, Icelandic A, Färöe A,[136] B, Swedish A, B, C, E, G, H, Danish A, D, F, I. These are reduced to two in Icelandic B, Danish B, C, H, L, Swedish D, and even to one in English D, F, I, K, O, but some of these have suffered injury towards the conclusion. The number is increased to four in Norwegian B, to five in Norwegian A, D, and even to six in Norwegian C, K, M. The increase is, of course, a later exaggeration, and very detrimental to the effect. In those English copies in which the instrument speaks but once,[137] D, F, K, O, and we may add P, it expresses a desire for vengeance: Hang my sister, D, F, K; Ye'll drown my sister, as she's dune me, O; Tell him to burn my sister, P. This is found in no Norse ballad, neither is it found in the earliest English versions. These, and the better forms of the Norse, reveal the awful secret, directly or indirectly, and, in the latter case, sometimes note the effect on the bride. Thus, in Icelandic B, the first string sounds, The bride is our sister; the second, The bride is our murderer. In Danish B the first fiddle plays, The bride is my sister; the second, The bridegroom is my true-love; in C, H, the first strain is, The bride has drowned her sister, the second, Thy sister is driven [blown] to land. Färöe A, B, have: (1) The bride was my sister; (2) The bride was my murderer; (3) The bridegroom was my true-love. The bride then says that the harp disturbs her much, and that she lists to hear it no more. Most impressive of all, with its terse, short lines, is Icelandic A: