I've been thinking about this minstrel and that perhaps there was some liberties taken with the story. I doubt that some traveling minstrel that is barely getting by would take a chance on getting in trouble for naming real names or being too exact in the details of his songs. The basic story is likely true but this royal family, castle and knight might be exaggerations meant to hint at something, to act like a clue, but also to hide the real facts of the story. Perhaps this area called the "mill dams of Binnorie" is some fiction that is used to represent some town or area that has some similar characteristics. One detail I'm sure is BS is that the harp playing minstrel is famous and great and makes me believe that the song writer had personal knowledge of this incident and was exaggerating that fact.
And just another detail that I noticed. The older sister was "dark" and the younger one "fair", so knowing that the younger sister was blond and fair skinned, it's likely that the older one was brunette with dark eyes and olive complexion and could have the implication that maybe the eldest sister was a "black Irish" half-sister and had some political meaning I couldn't possibly understand.
Still though, all the details in this story make it stand out as something that really happened. That is a really elaborate tale that could have left out most of those details and still told the story in the ballad. It had to be a good story to survive this long and it did lose details as it went along, so with all that remaining detail, it rings true to me.
And just another detail that I noticed. The older sister was "dark" and the younger one "fair", so knowing that the younger sister was blond and fair skinned, it's likely that the older one was brunette with dark eyes and olive complexion and could have the implication that maybe the eldest sister was a "black Irish" half-sister and had some political meaning I couldn't possibly understand.
Still though, all the details in this story make it stand out as something that really happened. That is a really elaborate tale that could have left out most of those details and still told the story in the ballad. It had to be a good story to survive this long and it did lose details as it went along, so with all that remaining detail, it rings true to me.
A trail goes two ways and looks different in each direction - There is no such thing as a timid woodland creature - Whatever does not kill you leaves you a survivor - Jesus is NOT a bad word - MSB