The Holly and the Ivy

Traditional English carol

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It’s the dead of winter in the Forest of Arden. A brave and good young man, driven into exile by his wicked older brother, has been roaming the woods looking for something, anything, to eat. Not for himself: for his faithful servant Adam, four score years and more, who has followed his beloved master, and who now is near to dying for want of food. This lad, Orlando, comes upon a group of courtiers, dressed fit for the rustic place and the season. The leader, Duke Senior, himself driven from his court into exile and also by a brother, welcomes him kindly. So Orlando returns, carrying the old man in his arms. “Sit down,” says the Duke, “and rest your venerable burden, / And let him feed.” Then while Adam eats and begins to recover, the Duke asks one of his courtiers to sing a song. Music, sweet music, is restorative. Here is the first verse:

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou are not so unkind
As man's ingratitude.
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh-ho, sing heigh-ho, unto the green holly,
Most friendship is feigning, most loving, mere folly;
Then heigh-ho, the holly,
This life is most jolly.

There’s our Word of the Week, holly. I like to think of that verse as just a hint of Christmas in the middle of this gentle and whimsical and sometimes sad but mostly merry play about love and sin and forgiveness. Shakespeare, more than any of his contemporaries, put a lot of Christmas and Easter into his plays. As for the holly and the ivy, the English have long used holly and ivy to decorate their homes and their churches at this season, at least since the 1400’s. It’s a natural association to make: life in the midst of death; and the red berries like drops of blood.

Our Hymn of the Week, “The Holly and the Ivy,” is a Christmas carol, and that’s also something notable, something we might take for granted. I don’t know any Christmas carols before the High Middle Ages. Those centuries filled with light saw the dawning of one great form of popular art after another: think of the soaring Gothic cathedrals as the most remarkable productions of folk art in the history of the world. But those Middle Ages were brilliant in the low as in the high, in the small and intimate, like the Christ-child in the manger, and the great and mighty, as Christ enthroned in glory. So many carols, and in all the nations of Europe! We have probably lost most of them. We might have lost the most popular melody for this one, but for the tireless work of Cecil Sharp, who combed the English and American countrysides, seeking out folk songs and their melodies from anybody who remembered them and could sing them. So Sharp would listen to them and would transcribe what he heard into musical notation. He saved well over a thousand songs this way. It’s also what the younger Ralph Vaughn Williams did, often naming his melodies by the place where he first heard them: one of our favorites is Monks Gate, where he heard one Mrs. Harriet Verrall sing it, a few days before Christmas in 1904.

The folk used to be alive with music — love songs, of course, but also these carols, which are often love songs to Mary and the child Jesus. “The Holly and the Ivy” is a fine example of popular song and poetry. The verses are simple but vigorous, with bright images, sometimes a bit of bounce in the meter, a merry refrain, and no pretension at all. But don’t take it for granted, either. The verses encapsulate the meaning of Christ’s birth and passion, death and resurrection, without a trace of scholarliness to muddle it up. But if they do gesture toward that Passion to come, the refrain brings us back to the English country, to hunting the deer, and feasting, and hearing the youthful voices of the choirboys in the loft on Christmas day. Then let the horns sound! — but not today, not yet!

The holly and the ivy, 
when they are both full grown,
of all the trees that are in the woods, 
the holly bears the crown.

Refrain. The rising of the sun
and the running of the deer,
the playing of the merry organ,
sweet singing in the choir.

The holly bears a blossom
as white as lily-flower,
and Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
to be our sweet Savior.  Refrain.

The holly bears a berry
as red as any blood,
and Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
to do poor sinners good.  Refrain.

The holly bears a prickle
as sharp as any thorn,
and Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
on Christmas Day in the morn.  Refrain.

The holly bears a bark
as bitter as any gall,
and Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
for to redeem us all.  Refrain.

The holly and the ivy,
when they are both full grown,
of all the trees that are in the wood,
the holly bears the crown.  Refrain.

Word & Song by Anthony Esolen is an online magazine devoted to reclaiming the good, the beautiful, and the true. We publish six essays each week, on words, classic hymns, poems, films, and popular songs, as well a weekly podcast for paid subscribers, alternately Poetry Aloud or Anthony Esolen Speaks. Paid subscribers also receive audio-enhanced posts and on-demand access to our full archive, and may add their comments to our posts and discussions. To support this project, please join us as a free or paid subscriber. We value all of our subscribers, and we thank you for reading Word and Song!