'The Cruel Sister' ~ Old Blind Dogs

'The Cruel Sister' by Old Blind Dogs, from their 1993 album "Close to the Bone".

This song is based on an old Scottish or Irish tale, and is also known {with different lyrics} as :~
'Two Sisters' by Clannad
'The Bonny Swans' ~ Loreena McKennitt

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Old
• Blind
• Dogs
• Celtic
• Folk
• The
• Cruel
• Sister
• Two
• Sisters
• Scottish
• Irish
• Myths

[NameOfRain]

Maev did a version of this with a little "darker" sound. Clannad (the band, not the anime) did a version of this as well, but with slightly different lyrics- the elder sister ends up being killed by being boiled in lead- not a pleasent way to go! I never heard the Appalachia one, but I'm not really surprised to hear that it exists.

[SilverWolfMoon]

@NameOfRain The Clannad lyrics actually say "The elder sister was bored in bed" - to suggest that the 'true love' wasn't worth having!

[NameOfRain]

@SilverWolfMoon It does sound like that! I looked up the lyrics, and I think the actual lyric is "boiled in lead". If you like, feel free to do your own checking. Personally, I like your "bored in bed" better, LOL!

[SilverWolfMoon]

@NameOfRain I think because there are so many versions, people have made little adaptations to the lyrics over the years, and maybe Clannad decided to go for a humourous ending!

[darkfey1963]

Loreena McKennitt did a song with many similarities on "The Mask and The Mirror" called "The Bonny Swans" which I like,but I find I prefer this-hadn't heard it before tho I'm familiar with OBD.Obviously resonates very strongly in the Celtic countries.Maybe because the shattering of the bonds of kinship was regarded with such horror in older times,when those kinfolk,& your community,were so critical.Who else did you have?Good fuel for a singer's imagination.Gets an audience's attention!!

[SilverWolfMoon]

@darkfey1963 There seems to be two main threads, but you only sometimes find both in each song: 1) The drowned sister is found by a miller {or similar}, robbed and thrown back in the water. 2) The body is found by passing minstrels who use her hair and bones to make either a harp or a fiddle.

Swans are only occasionally mentioned in the main songs, like the line about "... and there she floated just like a swan..."

[SuperSandman14]

am not scottish or irish but love the song

[graineag]

Probably one of the most widely-traveled ballads from the British Isles. "An Bhean Udaí Thall" and "A' Bhean Eudach" are Irish and Scottish Gaelic narrative songs of a similar theme. The "Cruel Sister" ballad is found in a number of incarnations in both Scotland and England, and was also collected in Appalachia, where the minstrels made a fiddle or a banjo from the woman's bones.

[adjrean57]

Whaat a beautiful, though sad, song. Wonderful singing and instrumentals.

[AlgrimBlack]

I think this song is so underrated, to me this is just as good as loch lomond or auld lang sine, love it

[Chuepox]

this is a great version, my personal fave, and the one which gave my the idea to do my own

[indetroit442]

love it!!!!!!!!!!!

[meiriona]

Interesting version of the Child Ballad, I think this is one of my favourite versions

[Guenevere33]

@darkfey1963 Slightly off the subject but does anyone else listen to this song and think it really should have been named, 'The full of himself Knight who thought he could have his cake and eat it too so messed about two sisters causing one of them to snap?' seems much fairer than 'The Cruel Sister' since he courted them both even though he knew he only had true feelings for one which is obviously the cause of it all! :-P