The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #12518   Message #99104
Posted By: Penny S.
25-Jul-99 - 06:06 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Twelve Days of Christmas
Subject: Lyr Add: TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
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I know this is a bit early, but I have just found my copy, and I thought I ought to send it before I lost it again. This is an alternative version to those in the DT. It was collected by Sabine Baring-Gould's aunt Cecily in 1840, and published in Folk Songs of Somerset, reprinted by David and Charles - I am afraid I have lost my notes of the publishing details, and of who provided the explanatory notes, which suggest an alternative to the recusant Catholic interpretations.

1. The first day of Christmas my true love sent to me, a part of a Juniper tree.
2. Two turtle doves
3. Three French hens
4. Four Colley-birds
5. Five, a golden ring
6. Six geese a-laying
7. Seven swans a-swimming
8. Eight hares a-running
9. Nine ladies dancing
10. Ten lords a-playing
11. Eleven bears a-baiting
12. Twelve bulls a-roaring

The notes refer to versions from Devon (the Nawden Song), Scotland, Northumbria, France and the Languedoc, as well as one in Halliwell's Nursery Rhymes. There is reference to forfeits being paid by singers who could not remember the whole.

Notes

1. Partridge (in those versions) - speckled birds represent the evil one. Pear trees have magical properties associated with Christmas Eve. Joli perdrix may be transferred from the French.
2. Turtle doves refer to lovers.
3. French hens - may be simply rare foreign birds.
4. Colley-birds are blackbirds
5. Gold ring - it is suggested that this means goldspinks, goldfinches
7. Swans are sometimes steers a-running
8. Hares, are sometimes swans or deer a-running
9. Ladies may be drummers or lords a-leaping
10. Lords may be pipers, ladies, or bells a-ringing
11. Bears may be ladies, or bulls a-bleating
12. Bulls may be lords, cocks a-crowing, bells a-ringing, ships a-sailing

The music is different from the usual version set by Richard Austin. I have it as a Noteworthy file.