A lot of fluff and myths have been spread about the origin of "Silent Night" since its creation. The power of the Internet has increased the flow of both fact and myth. Some of the stories are cute. They just aren't exactly true. In this essay, you will hopefully find the facts concerning the origin of this great carol of Christmas and the proofs that show its true authorship.--Bill Drennon

The above quote is from the Central Valley Christian School which has a lot of good information about the histories of various carols here.

Here is another site, Montrose Music, which has several Christmas Carol histories.

I'm always looking for the histories of carols and hymns, so if anyone has any more sites please post them. It seems that there are books written about this topic, but free info is hard to find. Then, because this is the Internet, you really want to check your sources.