Twelve Days (Before) Christmas

Day 5 - This Endris Night

This Endris Night (also Thys Endris Night, Thys Ender Night or The Virgin and Child) is a 15th-century English carol. Two versions from the 15th-century survive, one republished in Thomas Wright's Songs and Carols Now First Printed, From a Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, and the other in the possession of the Advocates' Library in Edinburgh, Scotland. It has been praised for the unusual delicacy and lyrical flourish for a poem of the period. (thank you Wikipedia!)

This Endris Night

This endris night I saw a sight,
A star as bright as day,
And ev'r among, a maiden sung,
Lully, bye bye, lullay.

This lovely lady sat and sang,
And to her child did say,
My son, my brother, father dear,
Why liest thou thus in hay?

My sweetest bird, tis thus required,
Though I be king veray,
But nevertheless I will not cease
To sing Bye bye, lullay.

The child then spake in his talking,
And to his mother did said,
Yea, I am known as heaven-king
In crib though I be laid.

For angels bright down on me light;
Thou knowest 'tis no nay.
And for that sight thou may delight
To sing, 'Bye bye, lullay.

Now, sweet son, since thou art a king,
Why art thou laid in stall?
Why ne thou ordained thy bedding
In some great kinge's hall?

Methinks 'tis right that king or knight
Should lie in good array.
And then among, it were no wrong
To sing By, by, lullay.

Mary mother, I am thy Child,
Though I be laid in stall;
For lords and dukes shall worship Me,
And so shall kinges all.

Now tell, sweet Son, I Thee do pray,
Thou art me Lief and Dear—
How should I keep Thee to Thy pay,
And make Thee glad of cheer?

My dear mother, when time it be,
Thou take Me up on loft,
And set Me then upon thy knee,
And handle me full soft.

And in thy arm thou hold Me warm,
And keepe night and day,
And if I weep, and may not sleep,
Then sing, By, by, lullay.

Now sweet Son, since it is come so,
That all is at Thy will,
I pray Thee grant to me a boon,
If it be right and skill.

That child or man, who will or can
Be merry on my day,
To bliss Them bring - and I shall sing,
Lullay, by, by, lullay.

This Endris Night - Green Matthews

This Endris Night - arr. Vaughan Williams / Roanoke College Choir

This Endris Night - The Sixteen