There is a remarkable agreement between the Norse and English ballads till we approach the conclusion of the story, with a natural diversity as to some of the minuter details.
The sisters are king's daughters in English #A#, #B#, #C#, #H#, #O# (?), #P#, #Q#, #R a#, and in Swedish #B# and two others of Afzelius's versions. They are an earl's daughters in Swedish #F#, and sink to farmer's daughters in English #R b#, #c#,[129] Swedish #A#, #G#, Norwegian #C#.
It is a thing made much of in most of the Norse ballads that the younger sister is fair and the older dark; the younger is bright as the sun, as white as ermine or as milk, the elder black as soot, black as the earth, Icelandic #A#, Swedish #A#, #B#, #G#, Danish #A#, #D#, etc.; and this difference is often made the ground for very unhandsome taunts, which qualify our compassion for the younger; such as Wash all day, and you will be no whiter than God made you, Wash as white as you please, you will never get a lover, Färöe #A#, #B#, Norwegian #A#, #C#, etc. This contrast may possibly be implied in "the youngest was the fairest flower," English #F#, #G#, #Q# ["sweetest," #D#], but is expressed only in #M#, "Ye was fair and I was din" (dun), and in #P a#, "The old was black and the young are fair."
The scene of action is a seashore in Icelandic and Färöe #A#, #B#, Norwegian #A#, Swedish #A#, #B#, #G#, #H#, and in all the Danish complete copies: a seashore, or a place where ships come in, in English #A#, #B a#, #D-I#, #Q#, #R a#, #T#, but in all save the last of these (the last is only one stanza) we have the absurdity of a body drowned in navigable water being discovered floating down a mill-stream.[130] #B c# has "the deep mill-dam;" #C# "the river-strand," perhaps one of Scott's changes; #M#, "the dams;" #L#, #O#, #P#, #R b c#, a river, Tweed mill-dam, or the water of Tweed. Norwegian #B# has a river.
The pretence for the older sister's taking the younger down to the water is in English #A-E#, #G#, #H#, #I#, #O#, #Q#, to see their father's ships come in; in Icelandic #B# to wash their silks;[131] in most of the Norse ballads to wash themselves, so that, as the elder says, "we may be alike white," Danish #C-H#, Norwegian #A#, #C#, Swedish #F#, #G#, Färöe #A#, #B#. Malice prepense is attributed to the elder in Swedish #B#, #F#, Norwegian C, Danish #E#, #F#, #G#: but in Färöe #A#, #B#, Norwegian #A#, #B#, and perhaps some other cases, a previous evil intent is not certain, and the provocations of the younger sister may excuse the elder so far.