For Christmas

Words: Anonymous, "Probably of the XIIth Century"
 

Translations:
In The Ending Of The Year - Version 1 by John Mason Neale from Carols for Christmas-tide
In The Ending Of The Year -  Version 2 by John Mason Neale Alt. by George R. Woodward
In The Ending Of The Year - Version 3 by John Mason Neale, Medieval Hymns

Music: "Original Melody.
Harmonized by H. R. Schroeder."

Source: J. H. Hopkins, ed., Great Hymns of the Church Compiled by the Late Right Reverend John Freeman Young (New York: James Pott & Company, 1887), #73, pp. 114-5.

1. In hoc anni circulo
Vita datur fæculo,
Nato nobis parvulo
Per virginem Mariam.
    Verbum caro factum est
    Per virginem Mariam.

2. Quod vetustas suffocat
Hoc ad vitam revocat,
Nam se Deus collocat
Per virginem Mariam.
    Verbum caro factum est
    Per virginem Mariam.

3. Adam pomo vescitur,
Et sudor repellitur
Sui vultus hodie
Per virginem Mariam.
    Verbum caro factum est
    Per virginem Mariam.

4. Noe, pro diluvio
Clauso fortis ostio,
Arcam intrat hodie
Per virginem Mariam.
    Verbum caro factum est
    Per virginem Mariam.

5. Serpens ille, callidus
Cunctis animalibus,
Suffocatur hdie
Per virginem Mariam.
    Verbum caro factum est
    Per virginem Mariam.

6. Stella solem protulit,
Sol salutem contulit,
Nihil tamen abstulit
Per virginem Mariam.
    Verbum caro factum est
    Per virginem Mariam.

7. Puer circumciditur,
Sanguis ejus sunditur,
Vita restituitur
Per virginem Mariam.
    Verbum caro factum est
    Per virginem Mariam.

8. In præsepe ponitur
Et a brutis colitur,
Matris velo tegitur
Per virginem Mariam.
    Verbum caro factum est
    Per virginem Mariam.

9. Ab angelis concinitur,
Gloria et pax dicitur,
A pastoribus quæritur
Cum virgine Mariam.
    Verbum caro factum est
    Per virginem Mariam.

10. Joseph nato fruitur,
Natus lacte pascitur,
Vagit, plorat, tegitur
Per virginem Mariam.
    Verbum caro factum est
    Per virginem Mariam.

11. Ergo nostra concio
Omni plena gaudio,
Psallat cum tripudio
Cum virgine Mariam.
    Verbum caro factum est
    Per virginem Mariam.

Sheet Music from J. H. Hopkins, ed., Great Hymns of the Church Compiled by the Late Right Reverend John Freeman Young (New York: James Pott & Company, 1887), #73, pp. 114-5.

"Original Melody
Harmonized by H. R. Schrœder"

From Piae Cantiones (1582).

Note:

Some sources have given the title as "in hoc anno circulo," and a few have ascribed it to Jacopone. Neale writes in "Medieval Hymns" that the source is German, possibly the 12th century, and that the earliest popular translation is In des Jahres Zirclikeit. He does not give the title of the other German translation that he is aware of. The lines "in hoc anni circulo" are from in the hymn Verbum caro factum est, Ex virgine Maria. In his notes to the latter, John Julian notes that "This hymn exists in a great variety of texts... The two lines above are used in some cases as the introduction, and line 2 as the refrain." (Dictionary of Hymnology, 1907, p. 1216).

Some sources of Latin hymns found in Piae Cantiones:

• Guido Maria Dreves and Clemens Blume, eds., Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi, Vol. 1.  Cantiones Bohemicae. (Leipzig: O. R. Reisland, 1886).

• Guido Maria Dreves and Clemens Blume, eds., Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi, Vol. 45b. Cantiones et Motetten des Mittelalters. (Leipzig: O. R. Reisland, 1904).

• G. E. Klemming, ed., Piae Cantiones. S. Trinitas. Iesus Christus. S. Spiritus. S Maria. (1886). Primary source for many scholars, including Dreves, Woodward and others.

• George Ratcliffe Woodward, Piae Cantiones: A Collection of Church & School Song, chiefly Ancient Swedish, originally published in A.D. 1582 by Theodoric Petri of Hyland. (London: Chiswick Press for the Plainsong & Medieval Music Society, 1910).

• Sheet music for some hymns can be found in George Ratcliffe Woodward, The Cowley Carol Book, First & Second Series. Table Of Contents. (London: A. R. Mowbray & Co., Ltd., ca. 1902, 1912).

• Translations of some carols can be found in John Mason Neale and Thomas Helmore, eds., Carols for Christmas-tide (London: Novello, 1853). By the same authors was Carols for Easter-tide (1854).

• Translations and sheet music for some hymns can be found in Charles L. Hutchins, ed., Carols Old and Carols New (Boston: Parish Choir, 1916).

• Scans of individual pages from Piæ Cantiones (in the Adobe PDF format) can be downloaded from Facsimiles Piae Cantiones (http://www.spielleut.de/facs_piae_cantiones.htm; accessed June 15, 2009).