Hi,

I've completed the rough draft of "Twa Sisters," thanks everyone for their help. It's here: http://www.bluegrassmessengers.com/british-and-other-versions--10-twa-sisters.aspx Comments welcome, I know there are minor errors.

Here's the ending section- Some Conclusions:

Some Conclusions
The ballad of the Twa Sisters is about the murder of the younger sister by an elder sister[37] over the affections of a man who courts them both and prefers the younger sister. Although jealousy is the motive there's a deeper additional motive of skin-color envy: the elder sister is dark skinned while the younger is fair skinned or white so the elder sister feels she can't compete for a groom with her younger sister. In the ur-ballad the elder sister's murder has given her sole access to their suitor, and they are to be married.

The ballad is about punishment or retribution for the crime of murder which, except for a confession from the elder sister, would not be solved. The retribution is made only through the supernatural resuscitation ending-- the dead sister speaks through a musical instrument with strings fashioned from her hair[38] and reveals the elder sister as the murderer. That this revelation occurs in some Scandinavian versions at the wedding of the elder sister with the younger sister's beloved is fitting. The punishment as ordered by the bridegroom: the elder sister is to be burned to death upon a pyre.

Paul Brewster who did the last detailed study of the ballad in 1953 believes the Marchen to be of Slavic origin. From the tale the ballad originated in Norway before 1600 then spread throughout Scandinavia. By the early 1600s the Two Sisters had spread to Scotland then England and Ireland where the miller (and mill dam) where added. In the UK The Twa Sisters emerged in different forms with different refrains. Two of the most popular variants lost the resuscitation ending:

1. the English "Bow Down" variant (Child Y), minus the resuscitation but with punishment, was brought to America in the mid-late 1700s. Although the miller finds the body, he is not the younger sister's love. The miller finds the younger sister in the water, robs her then pushes her back out into the water. The miller is hung (or burned) and the elder sister burned (or hung).
2. the Scottish "Binorie" variant (Child M), minus the resuscitation and punishment, was developed in Scotland in the last half of the 1700s. The miller laddie, though not at fault for the death of his beloved (the younger sister) sometimes dies at her funeral, presumably of a broken heart.

An early version of the English "Bow Down" variant with herb refrains and the missing resuscitation stanzas (my I form) was collected in America from the Hick-Harmon families. It's easy to imagine that this form existed before the short form (Child Y) was created and that the Child Y text originated from a ballad similar to the Hicks/Harmon ballad in England during the early to mid 1700s. In the new ballad represented by Child Y and the many versions of North America, the bow down refrains were inserted, the resuscitation stanzas were left off and a new short "punishement" ending replaced them.

Because most of the Maritime Canada versions have similar refrains to "Bows of London," it may be assumed they originated from the early Scottish variants first collected around 1770. The "Swan Swims Sae Bonny" refrain versions with resuscitation stanzas which Barry presumed to be Irish then Scottish (but they are both) were well known by the Scottish travelers in the 1900s. Carpenter collected an excellent version from Mary Robertson in the early 1930s and versions from the Whyte (White) and Stewart traveller families have been collected from the 1950s onward. Presumably the ballad is still sung traditionally among travellers as Elizabeth Stewarts version was recorded in 2004.

The ur-ballad has branched off from its Norse roots and taken different forms with a variety of refrains. In the versions with the resuscitation stanza the story has not changed much -- only missing the final scene at the wedding of the elder sister. The construction of the ur-ballad would necessarily include the courtship, the rejection of the elder sister because she is darker, the sisters going for a walk to the the sea brim (strand), the murder, the offers of the drowning girl to her older sister, the rejection of those offers, the drowning and recovery, the resuscitation of the younger sister at the wedding of the elder sister and their suitor, and finally, the punishment of the elder sister.

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Richie