Lyric discussion by iamvered 

Cover art for The Bonny Swans lyrics by Loreena McKennitt

The story is inconsistent start to finish.

The farmer has daughters... "one two three"... but where's the third daughter? She doesn't appear relevant to the story either at the beginning, or at the end when the farmer, now inexplicably a king, holds court with a brother (Hugh) and a "false sister" (Anne), and presumably the stolen lover, William. So where's the third daughter, and how did the farmer become a king?

@iamvered I love it though.