John Barleycorn Must Die is a telling of the basic near easter-european fertility god myth,


Compare this to the myth of Persephone, the myth of ADonis, and the Jesus myth,




Three men come from the West/East. They kill him. He arises again.


John Barleycorn represents the spirit of the harvested grain. The song is both a metaphor, and a poetic explanation of the killing of grain.