The body of the drowned girl is discovered, in nearly all the English ballads, by some member of the miller's household, and is taken out of the water by the miller. In L b, which, however, is imperfect at the beginning, a harper finds the body. In the Icelandic ballads it is found on the seashore by the lover; in all the Norwegian but M by two fishermen, as also in Swedish D [fishermen in Swedish B]; in all the Färöe versions and Norwegian M by two "pilgrims;"[132] in Danish A-F, L, and Swedish C by two musicians, Danish H, Swedish A, G, one. Danish G, which is corrupted at the close, has three musicians, but these simply witness and report the drowning.
According to all complete and uncorrupted forms of the ballad, either some part of the body of the drowned girl is taken to furnish a musical instrument, a harp or a viol,[133] or the instrument is wholly made from the body. This is done in the Norse ballads by those who first find the body, save in Swedish B, where fishermen draw the body ashore, and a passing "speleman" makes the instrument. In English it is done by the miller, A; by a harper, B, C, G, L b (the king's harper in B); by a fiddler, D, E, I, L a (?), O, P (the king's fiddler, O (?), P); by both a fiddler and the king's harper, H; in F by the father's herdsman, who happens to be a fiddler.
Perhaps the original conception was the simple and beautiful one which we find in English B and both the Icelandic ballads, that the king's harper, or the girl's lover, takes three locks of her yellow hair to string his harp with. So we find three tets of hair in D, E, I, and three links in F, P, used, or directed to be used, to string the fiddle or the fiddle-bow, and the same, apparently, with Danish A. Infelicitous additions were, perhaps, successively made; as a harp-frame from the breast-bone in English C, and fiddle-pins formed of the finger-joints, English F, O, Danish B, C, E, F, L. Then we have all three: the frame of the instrument formed from the breast (or trunk), the screws from the finger-joints, the strings from the hair, Swedish A, B, G, Norwegian A, C, M. And so one thing and another is added, or substituted, as fiddle-bows of the arms or legs, Swedish C, D, Danish H, English L a; a harp-frame from the arms, Norwegian B, Färöe A; a fiddle-frame from the skull, Swedish C, or from the back-bone, English L b; a plectrum from the arm, Färöe B; strings from the veins, English A; a bridge from the nose, English A, L a; "hørpønota" from the teeth, Norwegian B; till we end with the buffoonery of English A and L a.
Swedish H has nothing about the finding of the body. Music is wanted for the bridal, and a man from another village, who undertakes to furnish it, looks three days for a proper tree to make a harp of. The singer of this version supplied the information, lost from the ballad, that the drowned sister had floated ashore and grown up into a linden, and that this was the very tree which was chosen for the harp. (See, further on, a Lithuanian, a Slovak, and an Esthonian ballad.)
All the Norse ballads make the harp or fiddle to be taken to a wedding, which chances to be that of the elder sister with the drowned girl's betrothed.[134] Unfortunately, many of the English versions are so injured towards the close that the full story cannot be made out. There is no wedding-feast preserved in any of them. The instrument, in A, B, C, H, is taken into the king's presence. The viol in A and the harp in H are expressly said to speak. The harp is laid upon a stone in C, J, and plays "its lone;" the fiddle plays of itself in L b.[135] B makes the harper play, and D, F, K, O, which say the fiddle played, probably mean that there was a fiddler, and so perhaps with all the Norse versions; but this is not very material, since in either case the instrument speaks "with most miraculous organ."
There are three strings made from the girl's hair in Icelandic A, B, English B [veins, English A], and the three tets or links in English D, E, F, I, P were no doubt taken to make three strings originally. Corresponding to this are three enunciations of the instrument in English A, B, C, Icelandic A, Färöe A,[136] B, Swedish A, B, C, E, G, H, Danish A, D, F, I. These are reduced to two in Icelandic B, Danish B, C, H, L, Swedish D, and even to one in English D, F, I, K, O, but some of these have suffered injury towards the conclusion. The number is increased to four in Norwegian B, to five in Norwegian A, D, and even to six in Norwegian C, K, M. The increase is, of course, a later exaggeration, and very detrimental to the effect. In those English copies in which the instrument speaks but once,[137] D, F, K, O, and we may add P, it expresses a desire for vengeance: Hang my sister, D, F, K; Ye'll drown my sister, as she's dune me, O; Tell him to burn my sister, P. This is found in no Norse ballad, neither is it found in the earliest English versions. These, and the better forms of the Norse, reveal the awful secret, directly or indirectly, and, in the latter case, sometimes note the effect on the bride. Thus, in Icelandic B, the first string sounds, The bride is our sister; the second, The bride is our murderer. In Danish B the first fiddle plays, The bride is my sister; the second, The bridegroom is my true-love; in C, H, the first strain is, The bride has drowned her sister, the second, Thy sister is driven [blown] to land. Färöe A, B, have: (1) The bride was my sister; (2) The bride was my murderer; (3) The bridegroom was my true-love. The bride then says that the harp disturbs her much, and that she lists to hear it no more. Most impressive of all, with its terse, short lines, is Icelandic A:
The first string made response:
'The bride was my sister once.'
The bride on the bench, she spake:
'The harp much trouble doth make.'
The second string answered the other:
'She is parting me and my lover.'
Answered the bride, red as gore:
'The harp is vexing us sore.'