> Steeleye Span > Songs > Mistletoe Bough

The Mistletoe Bough

[ Roud 2336 ; Ballad Index R802 ; Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797-1839); Steeleye Span / Ken Nicol]

Bob Copper sang The Mistletoe Bough on his Topic album Sweet Rose in June. He and Mike Yates commented in the liner notes:

The Mistletoe Bough, on the other hand, is very much a composed song—in this case by Sir Henry Bishop (composer of Home Sweet Home) and T.H. Bayly. Although based on the story of the Lovell's missing bride, it should be noted that several other old halls also carry the same legend; notably Marwell Hall near Owslebury in Hampshire. One reason for the Oxfordshire setting may be the fact that in 1487 Francis 1st Viscount Lovell—the occupant of Minster Lovell Hall—disappeared following a dispute with the then Royal Family. Two centuries later, in 1708, some workmen encountered a secret room at the Hall and discovered “the entire skeleton of a man, as having been at a table which was before him with a book, paler, pen… all much mouldered and decay.” Francis perhaps? The workmen were never to find out though, for the entire contents of the room turned to dust as they watched.

George Townshend sang The Mistletoe Bough on the Musical Traditions CD Come Hand to Me the Glass (2000). Rod Stradling commented in the liner notes:

Written by Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797-1839), who also wrote the words of Home Sweet Home, this has been extremely popular throughout southern England and the USA and appears in a number of popular song books. It relates well to the novels of Sir Walter Scott and the general Gothic Novel movement. Roud has 70 versions, almost all from broadsides, with only eight recorded examples—Bob Copper is the only other Sussex man listed. One must assume that the element of pastiche in the song (trying hard to seem an older song than it actually is) meant that the earlier English collectors ignored it (for they surely must have encountered it), since it appears only in Henry Burstow's book listing his own songs—and much else—Reminiscences of Horsham (1911).

Jackie Oates sang The Mistletoe Bough in 2006 on her first CD, Jackie Oates.

Jon Boden sang Mistletoe Bough as the December 7, 2010 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.

Ken Nicol and Steeleye Span composed their own Mistletoe Bough and recorded in in 2004 for their CD Winter. Ken Nicol commented in the album's sleeve notes:

From the earliest times mistletoe has been seen as one of the most magical, mysterious, and sacred plants of European folklore. It was considered a bestower of life and fertility; a protectant against poison; and even an aphrodisiac. The mistletoe of the sacred oak was especially sacred to the Celtic Druids. Using it to treat all manner of diseases and as an antidote to every kind of poison, they called it “all heal”. Kissing under the mistletoe is first found associated with the Greek festival of Saturnalia and later with primitive marriage rites. In Scandinavia, mistletoe was considered a plant of peace, under which enemies could declare a truce or warring spouses would kiss and make-up.

The feast of fools, or otherwise known as “The feast of the ass”, was an old French tradition marking the end of the Christmas festivities. Ludicrous songs were sung in churches, with choir singers sometimes dancing and dressing in grotesque attire. Old leather was burned as mock incense; and in some places an ass was led into the church, in whose honour a ridiculous Latin hymn was sung, with “hee-haw” for a refrain. These lines sung at the end of the song (From the regions of the east…) have been taken from a translation of one of these mock hymns.

Lyrics

George Townshend sings The Mistletoe Bough

The mistletoe hung in the castle hall,
The holly branch hung on the old oak wall
And the baron's retainers were blithe and gay,
And keeping their Christmas holiday.
The Baron beheld with a father's pride,
His beautiful child, young Lovell's bride…
While she with her bright eyes seemed to be
The star of the goodly company
Oh the mistletoe bough, oh the mistletoe bough.

“I am weary of dancing now,” she cried,
“Pray tarry a moment, I'll hide, I'll hide
And Lovell, be sure the first to trace
The clue to my secret flirting place.”
Away she ran, and her friends began
Each bower to search and each nook to scan
And young Lovell cried, “Oh where dost thou hide?
I'm lonesome without thee, own dear bride.”
Oh the mistletoe bough, oh the mistletoe bough.

They sought her that night, they sought her next day
They sought her in vain when a week passed away
In the highest, the lowest, the lowliest spot
Young Lovell sought widely and found her not
And years flew by and the grief at last
Was told as a sorrowful tale long past
And when Lovell appeared the children cried,
“See the old man weeps for his fairy bride.”
Oh the mistletoe bough, oh the mistletoe bough.

At length an old chest that had long lain hid
Was found in the castle, they raised the lid
And the skeleton form lay mouldering there
In the bridal wreath of the lady fair.
Oh sad was her fate, and the sportive jest
She hid from her lord in the old oak chest.
It closed with a spring and the bridal bloom
Lay withering there in a living tomb.
Oh the mistletoe bough, oh the mistletoe bough.

Steeleye Span's Mistletoe Bough

The mistletoe bough, in the olden time,
Was honoured in many a sacred rhyme
By bards and by singers of high degree,
When cut from its place on the old oak tree
By white-robed Druid with golden knife
For they thought it a magical Tree of Life:
And many a promise and holy vow
There was solemnly sworn on the mistletoe bough.

The mistletoe bough in the Norseman's lay
Told ever of horrors, and love's dismay
When the old blind god, by a sportive blow,
Laid Balder, the beautiful sun god, low;
Thenceforth it was deemed an accursed thing;
But love out of sorrow could victory bring,
And the tears of Freja are shining now,
Like oriental pearls, on the mistletoe bough.

The mistletoe bough on the festive throng
Looks down amid echoes of mirthful song,
Where hearts they make music as old friends meet,
Whose pulse keeps time to the dancer's feet,
And eyes they are brighter with looks of love
Than gems outshining the lamps up above:
And who is she that will not allow
A kiss that's claimed under the mistletoe bough?

From the regions of the east
There came a strong and handsome beast.
Slow indeed his paces are,
None with donkey can compare.
For the load that he will bear,
Hail, Sir Donkey, hail.