Pentangle-Cruel sister (traditional)
A powerful song, and a very ancient one at that. There are versions all over Europe, and at least one in the United States (Wind and Rain). Its more common name is The Two Sisters, along with a Scottish version, sometimes called Binnorie (“by the bonny mill-dams of binnorie”) etc.
One sister murders another out of jealousy by drowning. The sister floats down the river, is found by musicians, and the musicians turn her body into a harp or fiddle (the breastbone as the resonating chamber, the hair as strings). When the instrument is brought before the king, it plays of its own accord and sings an accusation (in another version: “Woe to false Helen!”)
