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 in 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 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 truelove 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 breast bone

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