The Incest Song

Word is up to the king's dear daughter

And word is spreading all over the land

That's she's been betrayed by her own dear brother

That he has chosen another fair hand

Many young man had a song of her beauty

And many a grand deed for her had been done

But within her sights she carried the child

Of her father's youngest, fairest son

Tell to me no lies

Tell to me no stories

But saddle my good horse and I'll go and see my own true love

If your words be true ones, then that will mean the end of me

Brother oh brother what lies be these ones

They say your love to another I lose

There's a child within me of thy very own lineage

And I know it's I that thou would chose

And have you yet told your father or mother

All that thou has told here to me

And he's taken off his good braided sword

And I am down beside his knee

No I've not told no one but you my dear one

For it's a secret between us two

And I would come home and quit all my roaming

And spend my days only waiting on you

Too late too late for change my sister

My father has chosen another fair bride

And he stabbed her easy and lovingly lay her

Down in her grave by the green wood side

And when he's come home to his own wedding of feasting

And his father asks why he's weeping all so

He says such a bride as a I've seen on this morning

Never another man shall know