Words and Music: English Traditional, 1534

Compare: About The Field They Pipëd Right

Source: Edith Rickert, Ancient English Christmas Carols: 1400-1700 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1914), p. 99, which she notes is from The Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors, Coventry Corpus Christi Plays.

1. As I rode out this enders night,
Of three jolly shepherds I saw a sight,
And all about their fold a star shone bright:
    They sang terly terlow;
    So merrily the shepherds their pipes gan blow.

2. Down from heaven, from heaven so high,
Of angels there came a great company,
With mirth and joy and great solemnity,
    They sang terly terlow;
    So merrily the shepherds their pipes gan blow.

Note from Rickert:

"Apparently, this is only another version of the preceding." (Tyrle, tyrlow, tyrle, tyrlow - "About the field they piped right..."), p. 96.