Cruel Sister lyrics

Artist  : Pentangle 
Song : Cruel Sister



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 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)
alternating with each of the
lines below>
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 when 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."