She stole from her father's pillow the key,
And out of the dungeon she soon set him free,
And she, etc.
5
She led him into her father's stable,
And they've taken a steed both gallant and able,
To carry them down to fair Scotland.
6
When they first took the way, it was darling and dear;
As forward they fared, all changed was his cheer,
And she, etc.
7
They rode till they came to a fair Scottish corse;
Says he, 'Now, pray madam, dismount from my horse,
And go get you back to Northumberland.
8
'It befits not to ride with a leman light,
When awaits my returning my own lady bright,
My own wedded wife in fair Scotland.'
9
The words that he said on her fond heart smote,
She knew not in sooth if she lived or not,
And she, etc.
10
She looked to his face, and it kythed so unkind
That her fast coming tears soon rendered her blind,
And she, etc.
11
'Have pity on me as I had it on thee,
O why was my love so easily won!
A slave in your kitchen I'm willing to be,
But I may not go back to Northumberland.
12
'Or carry me up by the middle sae sma,
O why was my love so easily won!
And fling me headlong from your high castle wa,
For I dare not go back to Northumberland.'
13
Her wailing, her woe, for nothing they went,
A young maid's love is easily won
His bosom was stone and he would not relent,
And she, etc.
14
He turned him around and he thought of a plan,
He bought an old horse and he hired an old man,
To carry her back to Northumberland.
15
A heavy heart makes a weary way,
She reached her home in the evening gray,
And she, etc.
16
And all as she stood at her father's tower-gate,
More loud beat her heart than her knock thereat,
And she, etc.
17
Down came her step-dame, so rugged and doure,
O why was your love so easily won!
'In Scotland go back to your false paramour,
For you shall not stay here in Northumberland.'
18
Down came her father, he saw her and smiled,
A young maid's love is easily won
'You are not the first that false Scots have beguiled,
And ye're aye welcome back to Northumberland.
19
'You shall not want houses, you shall not want land,
You shall not want gold for to gain a husband,
And ye're aye welcome back to Northumberland.'
* * * * *
#A. a.#
2. _Halliwell's Deloney, in the first line of the burden,
has ~leape over~, but not elsewhere._
9^2. in the.
25^2. Where.
#b.#
3^2. walks.
3^4. she is.
5^1. aloud.
13^3. _omits_ sad.
15^3. the knight.
16^2. forth did.
24^3. The fairest.
27^1 thou shalt.
32^2. knight.
35^2. never were.
#B. b.#
2^2. this prison.
4^3. _omits_ that was.
6^3. ye brazen-fac'd.
11^3. He hired.
12^3. fell at his feet.
13^1. _omits_ so.
14^1. mother on her sae gentlie smild, _etc._
#C. a.#
8^2. Her bade.
8^3. return him.
#b.#
5^1. into.
13^2. at fifteen.
#D.#
2. _Thus in Motherwell's Minstrelsy, Appendix, p. xv_:
When they came to Scotland brig,
O my dear, my love that she wan!
'Light off, ye hure, from my black steed,
And his ye awa to Northumberland.'
#E.#
"The Flower of Northumberland. Written down from memory by
Robert Hutton, Shepperd, Peel, Liddesdale, and sent by
James Telfor to his friend Robert White, Newcastle on
Tyne. 20 copies printed." _Mr White's note._
[119] "Two of them singing the dittie," says Deloney, "and all the rest
bearing the burden."
[120] The earliest edition now known to exist is of 1619.
[121] Some of these ballads begin with stanzas which are found also in
Kvindemorderen and Ribold ballads (our No 4, No 7), where also a young
woman is carried off furtively by a man. This is only what is to be
expected.
[122] By mistake, most probably. But in one of the Polish ballads, cited
a little further on, #Q# (Kolberg, P. 1. Polskiego, 5 pp), the maid is
told, "In my country the mountains are golden, the mountains are of
gold."
[123] So 'Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight,' #D# 11:
'Is this your bowers and lofty towers?'
[124] There is a similarity, which is perhaps not accidental, between
these Scandinavian ballads and 'Child Waters.' Child Waters makes Ellen
swim a piece of water, shows her his hall--"of red gold shines the
tower"--where the fairest lady is his paramour, subjects her to menial
services, and finally, her patience withstanding all trials, marries
her.
[125] They pass the water in #Q# only, and that in a boat. She is thrown
in from a bridge in #V#, #W#, the bridge of Cracow in #C#: cf. Scotland
bridge, #D# 2 of this ballad. By a curious accident, it is at a wayside
crucifix that the man begins his change of demeanor in Polish #CC# 2
(Kolberg, #ddd#), as in #B# 5, #E# 7, of this ballad, it is at a
Scottish cross.
10
THE TWA SISTERS
#A. a.# 'The Miller and the King's Daughter,' broadside of
1656, Notes and Queries, 1st S., V, 591. #b.# Wit
Restor'd, 1658, "p. 51," in the reprint of 1817, p. 153.
#c.# 'The Miller and the King's Daughters,' Wit and
Drollery, ed. 1682, p. 87. #d.# 'The Miller and the King's
Daughter,' Jamieson's Popular Ballads, I, 315.
#B. a.# 'The Twa Sisters,' Jamieson-Brown MS., fol. 39.
#b.# 'The Cruel Sister,' Wm. Tytler's Brown MS., No 15.
#c.# 'The Cruel Sister,' Abbotsford MS., "Scottish Songs,"
fol. 21. #d.# 'The Twa Sisters,' Jamieson's Popular
Ballads, I, 48.
#C.# 'The Cruel Sister,' Scott's Minstrelsy, II, 143
(1802).
#D.# 'The Bonnie Milldams of Binnorie,' Kinloch MSS, II,
49.
#E.# 'The Twa Sisters,' Sharpe's Ballad Book, No X, p. 30.
#F.# 'The Bonny Bows o London,' Motherwell's MS., p. 383.
#G.# Motherwell's MS., p. 104.
#H.# Motherwell's MS., p. 147.
#I.# 'Bonnie Milldams o Binnorie,' Kinloch MSS, V, 425.
#J.# 'The Miller's Melody,' Notes and Queries, 4th S., V,
23.
#K.# 'Binnorie,' Kinloch's papers.
#L. a.# 'The Miller's Melody,' Notes and Queries, 1st S.,
V, 316. #b.# 'The Drowned Lady,' The Scouring of the White
Horse, p. 161.
#M.# 'Binorie, O an Binorie,' Murison MS., p. 79.
#N.# 'Binnorie,' [Pinkerton's] Scottish Tragic Ballads, p.
72.
#O.# 'The Bonny Bows o London.' #a.# Buchan's Ballads of
the North of Scotland, II, 128. #b.# Christie's
Traditional Ballad Airs, I, 42.
#P. a.# 'The Twa Sisters,' Motherwell's MS., p. 245. #b.#
'The Swan swims bonnie O,' Motherwell's Minstrelsy,
Appendix, p. xx.
#Q.# 'The Twa Sisters,' communicated by J. F. Campbell,
Esq.
#R. a.# 'The Three Sisters,' Notes and Q., 1st S., VI,
102. #b.# 'Bodown,' communicated by J. F. Campbell, Esq.
#c.# 'The Barkshire Tragedy,' The Scouring of the White
Horse, p. 158.
#S.# Kinloch MSS, VI, 89.
#T.# 'Sister, dear Sister,' Allingham's Ballad Book, p.
xxxiii.
#U.# From Long Island, N.Y., communicated by Mr W. W.
Newell.
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:
'Help then who can, help God above!
But ne'er shalt thou get my dear true-love.'
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#:
The first string made response:
'The bride was my sister once.'
The bride on the bench, she spake:
'The harp much trouble doth make.'
The second string answered the other:
'She is parting me and my lover.'
Answered the bride, red as gore:
'The harp is vexing us sore.'
The canny third string replied:
'I owe my death to the bride.'
He made all the harp-strings clang;
The bride's heart burst with the pang.
This is the wicked sister's end in both of the Icelandic ballads and in
Färöe #A#, #B#. In Swedish #A#, #G#, at the first stroke on the harp she
laughs; at the second she grows pale [has to be undressed]; upon the
third she lay dead in her bed [falls dead on the floor]. She is burned
in Danish #A#, #B#, #C#, #F#, #G#, Swedish #B#, Norwegian #A#, #B#, #C#,
#I#, #M#. In Norwegian #K#, #L#, the younger sister (who is restored to
life) begs that the elder may not be burned, but sent out of the country
(cf. English #R b c#); nevertheless, she is buried alive in #L#, which
is her fate also in #E#, and in other unprinted versions. A prose
comment upon Danish #I# has her stabbed by the bridegroom.
Norwegian #B# 21 makes the bride, in her confusion at the revelations of
the harp, ask the bridegroom to drive the fiddler out of the house. So
far from complying, the bridegroom orders him mead and wine, and the
bride to the pile. In Norwegian #C# the bride treads on the harper's
foot, then orders the playing to stop; but the bridegroom springs from
the table, and cries, Let the harp have its song out, pays no regard to
the lady's alleging that she has so bad a head that she cannot bear it,
and finally sends her to the pile. So, nearly, Norwegian #A#. In Danish
#A#, #C#, #D#, #H#, #L#, vainly in the first two, the bride tries to
hush the fiddler with a bribe. He endeavors to take back what he has
said in #D#, #L#, declaring himself a drunken fool (the passage is
borrowed from another ballad): still in #L#, though successful for the
nonce, she comes to the stake and wheel some months after. In #H# the
fiddler dashes the instrument against a stone, seemingly to earn his
bribe, but this trait belongs to versions which take the turn of the
Norwegian. In #C# 15 the bride springs from the table, and says, Give
the fiddlers a trifle, and let them go. This explains the last stanza of
English #A# (cf., Norwegian #B# 21):
Now pay the miller for his payne,
And let him bee gone in the divel's name.
Swedish #F# has an entirely perverted and feeble conclusion. "A good
man" takes the younger sister from the water, carries her to his house,
revives her, and nurses her till the morrow, and then restores her to
her father, who asks why she is so pale, and why she had not come back
with her sister. She explains that she had been pushed into the water,
"and we may thank this good man that I came home at all." The father
tells the elder that she is a disgrace to her country, and condemns her
to the "blue tower." But her sister intercedes, and a cheerful and
handsome wedding follows.
Swedish #C# and nearly all the Norwegian ballads[138] restore the
drowned girl to life, but not by those processes of the Humane Society
which are successfully adopted by the "arlig man" in Swedish #F#. The
harp is dashed against a stone, or upon the floor, and the girl stands
forth "as good as ever." As Landstad conceives the matter (484, note 7),
the elder sister is a witch, and is in the end burned _as such_. The
white body of the younger is made to take on the appearance of a crooked
log, which the fishermen (who, by the way, are angels in #C#, #E#)
innocently shape into a harp, and the music, vibrating from her hair
"through all her limbs, marrow and bone," acts as a disenchantment.
However this may be, the restoration of the younger sister, like all
good endings foisted on tragedies, emasculates the story.
English #F# 9 has the peculiarity, not noticed elsewhere, that the
drowning girl catches at a broom-root, and the elder sister forces her
to let go her hold.[139] In Swedish #G# she is simply said to swim to an
alder-root. In English #G# 8 the elder drives the younger from the land
with a switch, in #I# 8 pushes her off with a silver wand.