I used to be a stripper and loved to do theme sets when it was my turn for the stage, and I would play this song and the Mummer's Dance from time to time. It was always one of my best sets, even in the daytime. Since we only had a few minutes to get naked during our stage sets, all the other girls laughed at me when I came back stage to take at least twice as long to get all done up in various layers of Renaissance garb... until I came off stage with an overflowing armload of cash. Who's laughing now, bitches? LOL

My trance remix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eym-dly1uik

He a hoe everybody cum

What does Loreena actually sings? Sounds like: "A hey ho and me bonny... gone? gun? gum?"?

I heard this song for the first time long ago when I was a teenager and I thought: what a beautiful, Celtic song! Well, I never knew the lyrics, until now:)

I come here for the goosebumps....

Amazing song. Maybe wrong album cover?

such a beautiful voice

best of all

HQ - but mono? How did you manage that?

pal, a lot of wrong lyrics lolthe chorus is "A hey ho and me bonny o"just google it

The youngest came back as a swan, she was then transformed into a harp, where she then revealed what had happened. Her false sister Anne who drowned her was made to face the consequences of what she'd done.

It’s hard to imagine how Loreena could ever top this song. My very best wishes in her determination to do so. Love that she hails from our province (Manitoba). I toast to her every Feb 17th - plus a few times in between. #feb171957

I don't get why the song starts with the father being a farmer and ends with him being a king.

Some think that Loreena only plays ballads and soft Celtic. However, the guitar in this song is flat out ROCK!! Sure this is a Celtic song, but it is also a ROCK song.

Love the voice and the music...

Portree is beautiful Thankyou

Yes it is!! I have been there 20 years ago, greetings from Germany, I love the isle of skye!!!

¿Quién como tú, Loreena?

This is by far the most beautiful song about jealousy, murder and corpse desecration.

Muito triste a história que essa música conta..é uma lenda ou poema medieval onde uma irmã empurra a outra para o rio/lago e a deixa morrer afogada apesar da mesma implorar por socorro e lhe oferecer tudo o que tinha..a irmã assassina fez isso para ficar com o noivo da irmã...a irmã afogada se transforma em um cisne..fizeram do corpo dela/do cisne uma harpa que imediatamente começou a tocar sozinha contando seu drama..essa harpa foi levada ao castelo onde estavam os pais delas(rei e rainha),o rapaz(motivo do assassinato),o irmão de ambas e Anne,a irmã assassina..A harpa tocou sozinha contando sua triste tragédia e a irmã malévola foi descoberta.....e punida..

neither the sound or the photo are HQ. you lier!

liar, not lier

@james conkling ok

Why is her father a farmer in the beginning and the king when she's a self-playing bone and hair harp? Wait... why is THAT the part that's confusing me?

I had the same thought. But at the time of the Celts there where small farming clans where the head leader was the King.

WHERE DO I KNOW THIS SONG FROM

l'amo questa canzone :-) :-)

Hauntingly poetic, a world in itself. One for the Celts.

She is actually Canadian with Celtic roots no doubt.

Or the Scots?

A farmer there lived in the north countryA hey ho bonny oAnd he had daughters one, two, threeThe swans swim so bonny oThese daughters they walked by the river's brimA hey ho bonny oThe eldest pushed the youngest inThe swans swim so bonny oOh sister, oh sister, pray lend me your handWith a hey ho a bonny oAnd I will give you house and landThe swans swim so bonny oI'll give you neither hand nor gloveWith a hey ho a bonny oUnless you give me your own true loveThe swans swim so bonny oSometimes she sank, sometimes she swamWith a hey ho and a bonny oUntil she came to a miller's damThe swans swim so bonny oThe miller's daughter, dressed in redWith a hey ho and a bonny oShe went for some water to make some breadThe swans swim so bonny oOh father, oh daddy, here swims a swanWith a hey ho and a bonny oIt's very like a gentle womanThe swans swim so bonny oThey placed her on the bank to dryWith a hey ho and a bonny oThere came a harper passing byThe swans swim so bonny oHe made harp pins of her fingers fairWith a hey ho and a bonny oHe made harp strings of her golden hairThe swans swim so bonny oHe made a harp of her breast boneWith a hey ho and a bonny oAnd straight it began to play aloneThe swans swim so bonny oHe brought it to her father's hallWith a hey ho and a bonny oAnd there was the court, assembled allThe swans swim so bonny oHe laid the harp upon a stoneWith a hey ho and a bonny oAnd straight it began to play loneThe swans swim so bonny oAnd there does sit my father the KingWith a hey ho and a bonny oAnd yonder sits my mother the QueenThe swans swim so bonny oAnd there does sit my brother HughWith a hey ho and a bonny oAnd by him William, sweet and trueThe swans swim so bonny oAnd there does sit my false sister, AnneWith a hey ho and a bonny oWho drowned me for the sake of a manThe swans swim so bonny o

Why the dislikes? For the low quality?

Amo essa canção,, pela paz e confiança que me traz ! Extraordinária combinação de sentimentos!!!!!!

Nobody has mentioned the harp actually singing lyrics

OH MAN THAT MAKES A LOT OF SENSE

Well, it is a magic harp.

or harp as in "harpie"

Merry Meet! )O( To all my Brothers & Sisters in The Craft who love this song and tale as well!

Fantastic!

I read the lyrics to my son while we listened to this song... He cried. The other versions are sad, but this one is the saddest

Ceadh Mil Failte

I like this song because it sounds so Medieval-ish! ^_^

Espectacular !!!!! Increíble ,es un orgasmo para los sentidos

Fantástica!!

Full size! Thank you a lot!

Sounds like she's saying Hey He Ho and my Bunny Yo

Goose bumps!

es excelente

I never understood the lyrics, just now looked at them. Didnt even realize how heavy this song truly is. .-.

It's chilling and epic!

mesmerising voice

And out of nowhere, an epic guitar solo near the end... brilliant, and a little bit power metal-y.

the odessy of hope by doraka obummer

maravillosa

I heard this first way back in the early 90's when Loreena played in London, ON - had the audience entranced

perfeita

Loreena Mckennit creates some of the most emotionally and spiritiually evocative music I have ever heard- and it's communicated through a truly open mind <3

Kudos . . Well Said. ; )

She's absolutely the best at what she does. I never get enough of her timeless music

A song about a dude making a harp out of a woman's dead body is spiritually evocative?

Linda! Voz incrível

Simplesmente linda....

Tento ouvir o silêncio, e me tornar um pouco mais puro, ouvindo essa música.

What a bad copy lol!

Why not explain why you think it's a bad copy instead of just being a jerk and offering no explanation at all.

THE MORAL : THE TRUTH WILL EVENTUALLY BE KNOWN

Or: You'd better learn to swim.

Or: Instead of getting cremated or buried, get turned into a harp.

I've loved this song for years and suddenly I read the lyrics.  First there are three daughters and their father is a farmer.  Then her bones are made into a harp, and suddenly her father is a king and she only has the one sister; the other sisters seems to be her brother Hugh.

+William Snyder She says has three sister, plus one brother. The sisters were nota ssembled in the hall because they were either young, or had married and were living with their husbands. Or she only focused on Anne,the "false" sister as she calls hers, because well, she was the one that drowned her. Maybe the other sisters are nearby but she's simply ignoring them... As for the farmer-king part, several examinations and hypothesis exist. One is that this man owned land, and thus he was a farmer in a sense. However he owned not a small amount of it, but rather a very large one, and thus was rich and he was like a king in his territory ( metaphorically, as someone is a king in their house, because they own it. To own land and houses was rare in the middle ages after all)

William Snyder actually, the way it's told is the farmer had 3 daughters, the eldest was jealous that the youngest was asked to be wed to one of the princes. in her jealousy she drowned the youngest and was wed to the prince. she became a swan that a miller turned into a harp that her spirit played. he took the harp to the king, who would be her father in law if not for her sister, where she sang her song for everyone present.

I read it as the brother was actually a brother-in-law...

Brother = brother in law

swan thing is contrast of the dark work done....killing a sister..... so uckly thing to happen. and swans just swim so beautifully.. on surface it's beauty...but under the surface ugly.... it's also sybolism of oldest sister being beautifull but ugly inside.

this song is beautifull, i love it!, amo esta cancion, su melodia, su voz es tan...bella!... <3 mi ranking es stolen child y luego viene esta <3

Question: I realize the girl drowns... but does she swim in death? And how does a dead woman become so mistaken for a swan? She is pulled out of the water "to dry"and no one noticed that it was a blonde haired woman ??? the harpist is also messed up for turning a human into a musical instrument. All that being said, I love this song :p

@Elle Gee Elle, you have to understand the stories of the time Twa Sisters came about. The point was that even if you don't get caught, the bones/blood/spirit of the person will out you. The harp was made from her bones by a person (Bard/harper) who had the power to give the bones a voice. (The whole sinking/swimming thing is her moving over and under the surface of the water. Swan is a metaphor for a dead body. They look white/bloated). In ancient times being a King/lord didn't mean living in a castle with servants and subjects. It meant being the most powerful with the most land/resources/people who would come to your call to war. Farming was seen as a very important job, since it meant food/resources/not starving.

She turned into a swan after death.

There's a recurring theme in fairy tales of bones telling the tale of a murder. For instance, in the particularly gory "Juniper tree," a stepmother kills her stepson, cooks him and feeds him to his father and sister, and then the sister buries the bones under the juniper tree where their mother was buried. A bird magically flies out of the juniper bush, and sings a song "mother killed me, father ate me, sister chewed my marrow bones." It goes on singing and singing it until the evil stepmother can't stand it and runs out of the house. The bird drops a millstone on her, she goes down in flames and smoke, and the boy is reborn. I think in this one, when the bones are given a voice by being made into an instrument, they are able to talk and tell of the evil of the sister. And I think the harper did it intentionally, not because he's messed up and wants a human-bone-harp, but because he, like any good fairy tale inhabitant, believes that the bones will tell the tale of how they died. And they do, magically, condemning the murderer for her misdeeds. Ah, fairy tales. . . .

@Ayisha S The Brothers Grimm also recorded a story about one of the bones of a murdered man that was turned into a flute, that, when played, sang about the murder. So, not only is "bones revealing the truth" a recurring theme, even the more specific "bones being turned into instruments so they can bear witness to a crime" is common!Probably not even that strange if you realize that most of these stories must have developed in times that it would have been very difficult to solve a murder. Wishing the dead could come back and just tell you, is a very understandable fantasy, in that situation.

either her father was a king and by "farmer" they meant his land was mostly farms/that he was known for his farmland, OR that his father was a farmer and the youngest daughter (who died) was the lover of a rich man/prince (or she could have already been married so her "dad" the king is her father in law and maybe her fiance was the crown prince)she was murdered by her oldest sister for her lover. she didnt actually "swim" you shouldnt take songs so literally xD she looked like a swan bc she was bobbing on and under the water. her body would go down to the bottom and then the currents would bring it back up to the top. her likeness to a "swan" could have been bc she was beautiful or bc she was wearing a white dress (like in the song Molly Ban). they obvioulsy noticed, thats why they brought her out. they may have thought she was a swan at first bc of her clothes or pale skin. but if she was pulled onto the bank, theyd have known right away.but yeah, its kinda messed up to carve out her body and use it to make a gift for the royal family lol

Love Lorreena's songs.

& Bonny Swans is probably her very best.

Cette musique est tout simplement sublime, je ne m'en lasse pas !! De toute façon, Loreena Mckennitt fait que de superbes chansons et elle a une voix magnifique !! Je suis super contente de pouvoir danser sur ses musiques en danse orientale (ma prof de danse est une grande fan :) ) !! et oui vous devriez voir, une danse de voile sur cette musique, c'est tout simplement exquis !!!!

Here's a rough translation:I am French, and I only await one thing, a concert of Loreena McKennitt! I am under the spell of this singer! I am amazed at each of her songs! I must have this CD!. Her songs are soothing, I am a Admirer without a doubt.., and not a fan, a term that I find does not apply to Loreena McKennitt. I am, and always will, admiring her for her music, is it possible to produce such beautiful sound?

Well, her father DID go from being a "farmer" in the first verse to being a "King" in the last, so maybe her family was better off with her gone. :D

@LutyeFlute The feelings are mutual , my friend ! :)

@ishvareya It's thah, BabelFish :P Lol, it's funny. It's nice to speak with you, and like you are Loreena's fan, it's perfect ;)

@LutyeFlute Hahah ! I tried lol :) .. every comment means something to me , I went on BabelFish and translated :p .. your welcome :)

@ishvareya I'm sorry, you don't speak french ? ( ;) ) For me, it's impossible to do music more beautiful than Loreena's songs !Because she is perfect ! Nice, for your comment ;)

@LutyeFlute Haha, I couldn' ; t sont conformes à vous davantage :) , la musique est notre seulement remède, Loreena Mckennitt fait cela parfaitement, je ne pensent pas qu'il est possible de rendre une chanson plus belle que ceci. Merci de l'observation et du commentaire ! :):)

Je suis Française, et je n'attend qu'une chose, un concert de Loreena McKennitt ! Je suis sous le charme de cette chanteuse ! Je reste émerveillée à chacune de ses chansons ! Je doit connaître ce CD par cœur. Ses chansons, sont apaisantes, envoutantes ! Je suis une admiratrice incontestée, et non pas une fan, terme que je trouve décalée pour parler de Loreena McKennitt. Je suis, et le serai toujours, admirative de sa musique, est-il possible de produire un aussi beau son ?

who wouldn't drown a sister for the sake of a man?

I always cry a tiny bit after listening to this song

So sweet, so deep, so timeless. Kudos, Crystal.

For me, Dante's prayer moves me to tears every time I listen to it...