The Two Sisters- Barker (NC) Davis CC 1932 recording; Halpert 1939 recording- Bronson 67; 1951 Brown F Vol. 4; Abrams Variant 3;
[From The Brown Collection of NC Folklore, 1952 is one of the better US collections and has nine versions - five with music examples. Notes by Brown editors follow.
Barker, who originally was from Tennessee, first recorded his version in 1932 for Kyle Davis, Jr. (More Traditional Ballads) and then again in 1939 for Halpert (Bronson 67). The versions are essentially the same except that verse 9 is different. Barker moved to Virginia when he was still in school and did not live in nearby North Carolina-- the inclusion of his ballads does not fall into North Carolina criteria. Barker was a friend of Abrams and other local collectors including Richard Chase.
R. Matteson 2014]
OLDER BALLADS MOSTLY BRITISH: 4. The Two Sisters (Child 10)
4. The Two Sisters (Child 10)
For the range of this story in other lands and tongues, see Child's headnote; for its occurrence in Great Britain and America since Child's time, consult BSM 16-17 and add to the list there given Vermont (NGMS 3-4), Tennessee (BTFLS viii 71), North Carolina (FSRA 13), Florida (SFLQ viii 138-9), Arkansas (OFS I 50-2, 53-5, 59-60, 63), Missouri (OFS I 52-3, 55-8, 60-2), Ohio (BSO 17-8), Indiana (BSI 42-50), and Michigan (BSSM 32-4). Mr. Paul G. Brewster, who has made an intensive study (as yet unpublished) of this ballad, believes that, as ballad, it is definitely Scandinavian in origin, starting in Norway some time before the seventeenth century and spreading to Sweden, Denmark, the Faeroes (and thence to Iceland), Scotand, England, and America; and that the corresponding folk tale tradition is Slavic, probably Polish. The "singing bones" — the revelation of the crime by a fiddle made from the dead girl's body — have almost entirely vanished from American texts, but a trace of them is preserved in our version C. All but one of the versions in our collection belong to the common American tradition, marked by the "bow down" refrain.
F. 'Twa Sisters.' Sung by Horton Barker. Record contributed by Dr. W. A. Abrams to the present editor in 1951; also sung to the latter personally by the same singer at his home in Chilhowie, Virginia, June, 1952. Cf. FSS 521, 'The Miller's Two Daughters,' to show how different ideas of various songs can be combined to form a new version. [Barker was not from NC but his version is included here.]
For melodic relationship cf. ***JAFL, XLV, 1932, 2-3, No. 175; **FSSH 39, No. 4A. Beginning with the third measure, there is considerable similarity; also SharpK i. No. 5B, measures 8-9 with 5-6 in our version; ibid., first two measures in both, and 5L, our measures 9-12 with 13-16 there.
Scale: Mode III, plagal. Tonal Center: e-flat. Structure: abcdb1a1 (2,2,2,2. 2,2) ; b1 and a1 are considerably varied.
1. There was an old woman lived on the sea shore,
Bow and balance to me.
There was an old woman lived on the sea shore,
Her number of daughters one, two three four,
And I'll be true to my love,
If my love will be true to me.
2 There was a young man came there to see them,
Bow and balance to me.
There was a young man came there to see them,
And the oldest one got struck on him,
And I'll be true to my love, [dear,]
If my love will be true to me.
The remaining stanzas follow the same pattern.
3 He bought the youngest a beaver hat
And the oldest got mad at that.
4 'O sister, o sister, let's walk the seashore
And see the ships as they sail o'er.'
5 While these two sisters were walking the shore
The oldest pushed the youngest o'er.
6 'O sister, o sister, please lend me your hand
And you may have Willie and all of his land.'
7 'I never, I never will lend you my hand.
But I'll have Willie and all of his land.'
8 Sometimes she sank and sometimes she swam
Until she came to the old mill dam.
9 'O father, o father, come draw your dam,
Here's sister[1] a mermaid or a swan.'
10 'O miller, o miller, here's five gold rings
To put me safe on shore again.'
11 The miller received those five gold rings
And pushed the maiden in again.
12 The miller was hung on his old mill gate
For drowning little sister Kate.
1. either? The reference to father instead of miller in this stanza seems confused. However it is a different traditional stanza. Both the 1932 and the 1939 recordings have: The Miller he got his fishing hook/ And fished the maiden out of the brook.