Cruel Sister Lyrics

Cruel Sister lyrics

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