Undoubtedly, Steve! But, garbled or not, readers/reciters/singers of this particular version are left to rationalize precisely what's going on.

The "folk process."

It's worthwhile to ponder that when the song was self-evidently only a vulgar street ballad, editors thought it was junk; but as soon as it was forced into expressing a hypothetical Anglo-Irish swan-maiden myth, it became especially prized.