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The music of dead sisters: a feminist comparison of two folktales about singing bones and reeds

Abstract This article compares and contrasts two folktales. The first is the traditional ballad, ‘The twa sisters’, collected by Francis J. Child in the 19th century. The Canadian folksinger Loreena McKennitt compiled a variant of this, called ‘The bonny swans’. Many of these ballads feature a musical instrument composed of the bones of the slain sister, which sings the name of her killer, who is her heartless sister. The second folktale is ‘The singing reed’, a story collected in Namibia by Sigrid Schmidt. This tale recounts the story of a girl who dies due to the cruelty of her peers. Some of her blood splashes onto a reed, which sings to her brothers. No claim is made for any direct connection between the two tales; however, transcultural traffic entailed the exchange of various stories, both in written and oral form. Using a feminist perspective, the effects created in both of the folktales are analysed, including the representations of family life, the use of oral features and music, the references to magic talismans and the yearning to transcend the boundaries of death. The consonances and pertinent differences between the two narratives, highlighting their significance socially, politically and spiritually, are explored.