The Miller's Daughter- Davis (VA) 1914 Davis K (1929); Davis FF (1960)
[My title, none given. From Davis, Traditional Ballads From Virginia, 1929, version E. Davis' note follow. Davis included this in his 1960 book, More Traditional Ballads from Virginia, but with the tune. Barry, who requested the tune from Miss Davis, had already published the tune in BFSSNE but Davis does not mention this.
R. Matteson 2011, 2014]
THE TWA SISTERS
(Child, No. 10)
One might expect to find this ballad rather abundantly in Virginia, as Child reports it as one of the very few old ballads which are not extinct as tradition in the British Isles. The thirteen Virginia items are known variously as "The Two Sisters," "The Old Man of the North Countree," "Sister Kate," "The Miller and the Mayor's Daughter," ("I'll Be True to My Love," "The Three Sisters," and by other like titles.
All the Virginia variants, except the final fragment (K), belong with Child R and Y, and perhaps with the kindred fragments S and U between, as is shown by the refrain and the details of the story. The final fragment (K) is a different version: it has a refrain similar to Child G and J, but the drowned girl is a king's daughter, as in Child A. All of the Virginia texts are without that striking but rather gruesome detail found in more complete and uncorrupted form of the ballad - the use of some part of the body of the drowned girl to furnish a musical instrument which then makes known the murderer. The ballads that follow do not tell how the miller's guilt was discovered, but they state satisfyingly that he was hung at his mill gate. No punishment is mentioned for the elder sister. The miller is always the villain, never the innocent rescuer of the body as in Child A and R, etc.
For American texts, see Barry, No. J; Belden, No. 2 (fragment); Bulletin, Nos. 2-8, ; Campbell and Sharp, No. 4 (North Carolina, Virginia; cf. Sharp, Songs, II, No. a); Child, I, 137 (New York); II, 508 (New York); Cox, No. 3. p.521 (fragment and melody); Gray, P.75; Hudson, No. 3 (Mississippi);- Journal XVIII, 130(Barry, Rhode Island, text and melody, Maine); XIX, p. 233 (Belden, Kentucky, Missouri, fragment, reprinted from James Ashby's Missouri ballad-book); XXX, 286 (Kittredge- Missouri, Nebraska); Pound, Syllabus,p. 11 (fragment); Pound, Ballads, No. 4; Shearin, p. 11 Shearin and Combs, p. 7 (fragment). For additional references, see Journal, XXX, 286 and Cox, p. 20. It will be noted that Campbell and Sharp give three texts and three melodies from Virginia.
K. [The Miller's Daughter] No title given. collected by Miss Martha M. Davis. From the singing of her grandmother Rockingham County; January 8, 1914, Miss Davis writes: "My grandmother sang this ballad in broad-Scotch, but this is all we can recover."
1 The miller's daughter went out one day,
Hey ho, my honey, O,
To get some water to make her bread,
And the swan swam so bonny, O.
* * * *
2. The miller went and stopped his dam,
Hey ho, my honey, O,
And placed the king's daughter on dry land,
And the swan swam so bonny, O.