The Hymns and Carols of Christmas

Welcome Yule

A Christmas Carol

Fifteenth Century

Versions:
Wolcu zol thu mery ma (William Sandys, 1833)
Welcü Yole In Good Array (William Sandys, 1852)
Wolcum be thu, hevene kyng (Thomas Wright, 1841)
Welcome Yule (Edith Rickert, 1910)
Welcome Yule (Charles L. Hutchins, 1916)

Source: Edith Rickert, Ancient English Christmas Carols: 1400-1700 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1914), Page #121

Burden:
Welcome Yule, thou merry man,
In worship of this holy day.

1. Welcome be thou, Heaven-King,
Welcome born in one morning,
Welcome for whom we shall sing,
'Welcome Yule!'

2. Welcome be ye, Stephen and John,
Welcome Innocents every one,
Welcome Thomas Martyr one,
Welcome Yule.

3. Welcome be ye, good New Year,
Welcome, Twelfth day both in fere,1
Welcome, saintès lef2 and dear,
Welcome Yule.

4. Welcome be you, Candlemas,
Welcome be you, Queen of Bliss,
Welcome both to more and less,3
Welcome Yule.

5. Welcome be you that are here,
Welcome all, and make good cheer;
Welcome all, another year,
Welcome Yule.

Notes:

1. Company. Return

2. As from Bullen. Lef = Loved. Hone gives: Saints loved. Return

3. Great and small. Alternate line: "Welcome to thee, more and less." Return

Sheet Music from Martin Shaw and Percy Dearmer, The English Carol Book, Second Series (London: A. R. Mowbray & Co., Ltd., 1913), Carol #52
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Note from Dr. Rickert:

    Nunc gaudet Ecclesia. The first two carols in this group [the other being Eia, Martyr Stephane, page 122] name the Saints days kept at Christmas. Of these St. Stephen's Day, now Boxing Day, seems to have been most celebrated. Cf. p. 221-222 [Now Christmas Draweth Near], where Stephen is already invoked in connection with terms that suggest the custom of asking for "boxes."

Nunc Gaudet EcclesiaLeft: Illustration from Rickert

Also found in A. H. Bullen, A Christmas Garland (London: John C. Nimmo, 1885), p. 2, who notes "Printed in Ritson's Ancient Songs, Sandys' Carols, etc. (from Sloane MS, 2593, temp. Henry VI."

Husk, William Henry, Songs of the Nativity (London: John Camden Hotten, 1868):

    Yule, it is almost needless to observe, is the Anglo-Saxon name for Christmas. This carol is found in a manuscript of the time of Henry VI. preserved in the British Museum, but there is no doubt that the composition is of much earlier date.

The enumeration of the various festivals which occur during the period of Yule-tide, which lasted until Candlemas day, is found in other carols beside the present. Thomas the Martyr mentioned in the second stanza was Thomas a Becket, or, as he was more commonly styled, St. Thomas of Canterbury, whose festival was celebrated on the 29th of December.

Verse 3 and notes 1 and 3 from Hone, and not found in Rickert.

Also found in Joseph Ritson, Ancient Songs and Ballads From The Reign of King Henry the Second To The Revolution. 1790. W. Carew Hazlitt, ed., Third Edition. London: Reeves And Turner, 1877. Repr. Detroit, MI: Singing Tree Press, 1968, pp. 120-21.

    Ritson also notes that the source is the Sloane MS. No. 2593. The version he gives is the same as given above, although the spelling is more archaic. He gives no additional notes.

Also found in Henry Vizetelly, Christmas With The Poets (London: David Bogue, 1851).

    Vizetelly also notes that Yule is the Anglo-Saxon for Christmas. He gives the source as the Sloane MSS, No. 2593, fol. 79, ro, and gives the second line of the first verse as:

    Welcome, born on this morning.

Note:

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