Digging Through the Notes: The Twelve Days of Christmas

Saturday, December 26, 2020

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Day 2 (After) - Good King Wenceslas . . . We have all heard this carol since childhood, but most don't really know the story behind it. It turns out that the king of this carol was King Wenceslas (c.907-935), Duke of Bohemia (now the western portion of the Czech Republic). His grandfather and father had turned from paganism to Christianity, yet his mother was the daughter of a pagan tribal chief. When Wenceslas was 13, his father died, and his mother, having embraced paganism once again, tried to turn him away from Christianity. She was unsuccessful, and when Wenceslas turned 18, he gained the throne, had his mother exiled, and sought to reign over his people with mercy and justice as a truly Christian monarch. He is best known for his acts of kindness - one of which is immortalized in the carol we sing at Christmas. An early biographer wrote of his legendary deeds:

Rising every night from his noble bed, with bare feet and only one chamberlain, he went around to God's churches and gave alms generously to widows, orphans, those in prison and afflicted by every difficulty, so much so that he was considered, not a prince, but the father of all the wretched.

Beloved by his people, he ruled for a decade. But at the age of 28, he was assassinated on his way to church by his brother. Yet his influence lived on. He was considered a martyr, was canonized by the Catholic Church, and today is the patron saint of the Czech state. [thanks to Dr. Ralph F. Wilson for this note]

Good King Wenceslas tells the story of the king going on a journey and braving harsh winter weather to give alms to a poor peasant on the Feast of Stephen (December 26). During the journey, his page is about to give up the struggle against the cold weather, but is enabled to continue on by following the king's footprints, step for step, through the deep snow. In 1853, English hymn writer John Mason Neale wrote the lyrics to Good King Wenceslas, in collaboration with his music editor Thomas Helmore, and the carol first appeared in Carols for Christmas-Tide (1853). The text was set to the melody of 13th-century spring carol Tempus adest floridum (Eastertime has come), first published in the collection Piae Cantiones (1582). [the same collection, by the way, where Divinum mysterium first appeared!]

Good King Wenceslas looked out,
on the Feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about,
deep and crisp and even;
Brightly shone the moon that night,
tho' the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight,
gath'ring winter fuel.

"Hither, page, and stand by me,
if thou know'st it, telling,
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?"
"Sire, he lives a good league hence,
underneath the mountain;
Right against the forest fence,
by Saint Agnes' fountain."

"Bring me flesh, and bring me wine,
bring me pine logs hither:
Thou and I shall see him dine,
when we bear them thither."
Page and monarch, forth they went,
forth they went together;
Through the rude wind's wild lament
and the bitter weather.

"Sire, the night is darker now,
and the wind blows stronger;
Fails my heart, I know not how;
I can go no longer."
"Mark my footsteps, good my page.
Tread thou in them boldly
Thou shalt find the winter's rage
freeze thy blood less coldly."

In his master's steps he trod,
where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod
which the saint had printed.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure,
wealth or rank possessing,
Ye who now will bless the poor,
shall yourselves find blessing.