The Sun's Cousin

By forest and marsh on a lonely plain

Lived a harsh old miller who hated grain

He hated grain, his wife the same

Still to the mill the farmers came

On the shortest day when the sun was born

The miller's wife she gave birth, too

A daughter beautiful as she

Was kinder than a summer's day

She grew to work all in the dust

And sang the spring song of the thrush

Then on a cold gray winter morn

A marshwife came tae grind her corn

Said the miller, "Half your corn I'll take

So you can bake your yuletide cake"

But the woman said tae him wi' scorn

"That price I never can afford"

The daughter up to her, she ran

As through the marsh she had began

"If you return tomorrow morn

My parents to the town are gone"

So the daughter, she did turn the corn

When the old marshwife came back next morn

Saying, "For your work, reward you've won

I am the mother of the sun

The princess of the lands around

When riding out with hawk and hound

Out in the fields she lost her key

If you can find it, rich you'll be"

It's the daughter, she stepped out to find

The key the mother said did lie

But as she took it from the hay

The princess' men their whips did flay

"Such a fee forsaken, ill-bred girl

You'll not have these riches for yourself

The key of gold we'll have from thee

Or you'll not leave the woods this day"

It's then a noble knight drew near

Up to his saddle he's lifted her

His heart was taken by her sight

And to the princess they did ride

"Since you'll not have the miller's girl

Then I shall take her for myself"

The keys the knight tossed in her lap

And on the princess turned his back

But three days westward they did ride

'Til his hillside fortress they did sight

But what the knight, he had not said

The princess with him should be wed

So for a month and on a day

The lovers they lived happily

When came in sight the princess bold

With all her bitter men she rode

Up to the fortress soon they came

The arrow flew and spear, it flashed

The knight, he saw the day would lose

His ten against a hundred swords

The daughter, she looked up and saw

The mighty sun across the sky

"Oh sun, my kinsmen, will you help?

'Twas I who turned your mother's grain"

The army dark with weapons high

Did stop and turn towards the sky

The sun, he struck down on the men

Their armor melting as they ran

And in their paces, they did stop

Like candles set before the fire

The angry princess too was lost

Her body burned and turned to dust

The sun, his rage did die away

As dusk on any summer's day

He came to earth and gave away

His cousin born midwinter day

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