Cynewulf's Carol

One day in the run-up to last Christmas, while browsing through the seasonal carol literature and anthologies, as many choral musicians must do as they seek to imbibe the Yuletide Spirit, especially if they have seasonal concerts to arrange, I was struck by a fascinating paragraph in Erik Routley's classic study, The English Carol. The author had been discussing the history of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, one of whose most famous international musical manifestations has long been the event broadcast King's College, Cambridge, every Christmas Eve. Although first employed at King's in 1918, however, this particular type of service actually first saw light of day in Truro Cathedral in 1880, just three years after that diocese's foundation. (1) Referring to the 1911 event in Truro, Dr. Routley wrote: (2) In 1911 ... an elaborate book full of words and music was issued for the Truro [Christmas Eve] service, with a Preface by the then bishop (C.W. Stubbs, 1845-1923). In this book the words of the carols are largely written by Stubbs himself, and the music composed or arranged by T. Tertius Noble (1867-1950). ... The opening carol of the 1911 service is a hymn in seven verses, each of six tens, on the Great O's of Advent. But one remarkable discovery is among the carols, Cynewulf's Christ (about A.D. 750), beginning in its modern version: They came three Kings who rode apace To Bethlem town by God's good grace, Earendel! Brightest of angels. Foudre! It was a duteous thing Wise men to worship childe King; God-light be with us, Earendel! As a self-confessed antiquarian and lover of traditional carols, I re-read the author's description many times, not least because I found it almost impossible to believe that these two verses could have been translated as they stand an ancient English (let alone an Anglo-Saxon) poet. Nevertheless, I decided to take the author's statement at face value, seek out the original text and do some digging. How wonderful, I thought, if a genuine Old English carol text were lurking somewhere, ready to be added to the Middle English 'greats' in the repertory, such as Adam Lay Ybounden, A Babe Is Born Ywis, I Sing of a Maiden, Lullay My Liking, and many others, (3) and possibly even to be rewarded by attempts at a musical setting or two. The initial results of my research were disappointing. The Old English Crist is actually three poems, usually now designated I-III or A-C; and only the second one is certainly by the enigmatic ninth-century (and possibly Mercian) poet who signed the name Cyn(e)wulf in runic symbols at the end of three Old English poems, though he may have written the other two parts of Crist as well. It is a complex text. But what is important here is that the first 439 lines of Crist I (from which the passage comes) have been described as containing Advent lyrics ... most of whose twelve sections are loose translations and elaborations of the O-antiphons for Advent; (4) while the section containing the reference, lines 71-163, also deals with the Incarnation. (5) The passage relevant to and the Truro carol occupies lines 104-08: Eala earendel, engla beorhtast, Ofer middangeard monnum sended, ond so[eth]faesta sunnan leoma, torht ofer tunglas, [thorn]u tida gehwane of sylfum [thorn]e symle inlihtes! (6) (Hail, Earendel, of angels the brightest, Over earth sent unto Man, and true radiance of the Sun, bright above the stars, Thou every season, of thyself, forever illuminest) (7) As I had suspected, and as the above translation confirms, the two modern verses the 1911 Truro carol printed by Dr. Routley were not actually taken from the Crist poem at all, though the final couplet of the first verse obviously provided a direct Old English source for the Hail, Earendel refrain. Indeed, this is one of the very phrases of Old English that so inspired the young J. …