Tydynges I Bryng 3ow For To Tell

Words and Music: Traditional English

Source: Thomas Wright, Songs and Carols Now First Printed, From a Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century (London: The Percy Society, 1847), Song #20, , pp. 25-26, printed verbatim from a manuscript probably owned by a professional musician, and apparently written in the latter half of the fifteenth century, circa 1471-1485.

See: The Boar's Head Carols
Compare: Tidings I Bring You For To Tell (Husk, 1868)

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See notes in F A Q

Tydnges I bring 3ow for to tell,
What me in wyld forest befell,
Whan mu must with a wyld best mell,
          With a bor so bryme.

A bor so bryme that me pursued,
Me for to kyll so sharply ameved,
That brymly best so cruell and unryd,
          There tamyd I hym,
And ret fro hym both lyth and lyme.

Truly to shew 3ow that is trew,
Hys hed with my swerd I hew,
To make this day to 3ow myrth new,
          Now estes thereof anon.

Etys, on much good do yt 3ow,
Take 3ow bred and musterd therto,
Joy with me that I have thus done,
I pray 3ow to be glad everychon,
          And joy all in one.

---

Note from Wright:

This one and the one given on p. 42 [At The Begynnyng Of The Mete], are two new specimens of the curious songs for the ancient ceremony of bringing in the boar's head at Christmas. Others were printed by Ritson in his Ancient Songs,  and a very curious one will be found in the Reliquiae Antiquae, vol. ii, p. 30.

Editor's Note:

The two versions printed by Ritson were  The Bores Heed In Hand Bring I and The Borys Hede That We Bryng Here. The version printed in Reliquiae Antiquae was The boris hede in hond I bryng; it was also printed in Wright's Specimens of Old Christmas Carols.

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