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)
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 as 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.»