The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #147301 Message #3425005
Posted By: Joe_F
23-Oct-12 - 04:29 PM
Thread Name: Minourie (Binorie, Minorie, The Two Sisters)
Subject: LYR ADD: Prince by the Northern Sea
_Pace_ MacColl, it is not quite always true that the murderer goes free. In the following version, which is fairly well known (I have it on a Burl Ives record, and it is in the MIT Outing Club Songbook), but seems not to have made it into the DigiTrad, she and the miller both get their comeuppance:
The Prince by the Northern Sea
There was an old prince by the northern sea,
Bow down, bow down,
There was an old prince by the northern sea,
Bow and balance to me.
There was an old prince by the northern sea,
And he had daughters one, two, three.
I will be true, true to my love, love,
And my love will be true to me.
A young man he came a-courting there,
And he did choose the young and the fair,
He gave the youngest a gay gold ring,
The eldest thought 'twas a terrible thing,
He gave the youngest a beaver hat,
The eldest sister thought ill of that,
As they walked down by the river's brim
The ugly one pushed the pretty one in,
She floated down where the miller sat,
He took the ring and the beaver hat,
The eldest sister was burned at the stake,
The miller was hanged for what he did take,
In this version, as in some noted above, a superfluous third sister is mentioned only at the beginning. I have sometimes wondered if she wandered in from King Lear. If one wished to button up the story, one might add
The middle sister went off with the prince,
And neither of them has been heard from since.
%^)