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The Wren / The King / Joy, Health, Love and Peace

[Trad.]

“The king was the wren. The wren was the king of the birds. In ancient religions the king was sacrificed every seven years for the fertility and good of the tribe. In some places (Ireland) the queen was royal and married new consorts to be sacrificed. The consort was treated well for seven years (or one year) and then sacrificed by the new consort. A wren was killed and dressed up in ribbons, etc. and carried around the village. This is from Pembrokeshire in South Wales, commemorating the wren-killing on St Stephen's Day, December 26. “Old Christmas”, still celebrated rather than December 25, is Twelfth Night.”
-- Digital Tradition

Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick recorded this song in 1969 for their duo album Prince Heathen.

Steeleye Span with Martin Carthy recorded it for Steeleye's second album Please to See the King. The record's sleeve notes said:

The wren traditionally symbolised winter and the robin summer. On twelfth night in Pembrokeshire, where the song was collected, a wren was hunted and killed to symbolise the death of winter and then placed in a garlanded box and taken from door to door. At each house this song was sung ant the occupants asked to pay to see the dead wren with the words “Please to see the King.”

A soundcheck rehearsal from 1982 in Adelaide was released in 1999 on the CD A Rare Collection 1972-1996 and with overdubbed applause in 1983 on the Australian-only LP On Tour. A live recording from the Maddy Prior, Family & Friends Christmas tour of 1999 was released on the CD Ballads and Candles. Another Steeleye Span performance was recorded live in Salisbury on December 16, 2002 and can be found on The Official Bootleg.

The Watersons recorded this songs with the title Joy, Health, Love and Peace and very minor differences in the verses for their 1977 LP Sound, Sound Your Instruments of Joy. A.L. Lloyd commented in the album's sleeve notes:

A wren-boys carol, sung by groups of boys and young men, masked and disguised, who on St Stephen's Day (December 26) went from door to door carrying a hollybush on which was a dead wren, “the king of the birds”, or something to represent it. This rare song came to the Watersons from Andy Nisbet, who got it from “two old ladies in Pembrokeshire.”

A live recording from the Iron Horse, Northampton, USA of unknown date was released in 2004 as The King's Song on the Watersons' 4CD anthology Mighty River of Song.

Another song related to the same topic is Hunting the Wren on Steeleye Span's album Live at Last, and Martin Carthy and June Tabor's Hunting the Cutty Wren on the Mrs Ackroyd Band's album Oranges and Lemmings. All mentioned versions except for the Steeleye Span and Watersons live recordings can be found on CD 2 of the 4 CD Martin Carthy anthology The Carthy Chronicles too.

Lyrics

Martin Carthy: The Wren / Steeleye Span: The King	The Watersons: Joy, Health, Love and Peace
Joy, health, love and peace Be all here in this place By your leave we will sing Concerning our king	Joy, health, love and peace Be all here in this place By your leave we will sing Concerning our king
Our king is well dressed In the silks of the best In ribbons so rare No king can compare	Our king is well dressed In the silks of the best With the ribbons so rare No king can compare
We have travelled many miles Over hedges and stiles In search of our king Unto you we bring	We have travelled many miles Over hedges and stiles In search of our king Unto you we bring
We have powder and shot To conquer the lot We have cannon and ball To conquer them all	We have powder and shot For to conquer the lot We have cannon and ball To conquer them all
Old Christmas is past Twelve tide is the last And we bid you adieu Great joy to the new	Now Christmas is past Twelfth tide is the last And we bid you adieu Great joy to the new

Acknowledgements

Transcribed from the singing of The Watersons by Garry Gillard.