The Holly bears the Crown: the seasonal significance of Holly 1/2

The Holly bears the Crown: the seasonal significance of Holly 1/2

Part 1 of 2: Culture

Do you have a favourite Christmas Carol? At this time of year I dig out a favourite Christmas album called A Tapestry of Carols, performed by Maddy Prior and The Carnival Band. It is one of the most authentic collections of seasonal folk-carols I know of. Two favourite songs both have Holly Ilex aquifolium as their central theme: The Sans Day Carol and The Holly and the Ivy. They are examples of quite a few seasonal songs which use these evergreen plants as pagan and religious symbols.

The Holly and the Ivy was always a childhood favourite of mine, even if I didn't appreciate at the time how steeped it is in both Pagan and Christian tradition. 

The first and last of the six stanzas are repeated:

The holly and the ivy / Now are both full grown / 

Of all the trees that are in the wood / The holly bears the crown.

The lines are interpreted to mean that the Holly and Ivy Hedera helix, being evergreen, are the most prominent at around Midwinter, but that the holly and its value at this time is worthy of divine comparison, the crown being Christ's Crown of Thorns. The Holly is King of the Wood at Midwinter.

The middle four stanzas of the song compare the divine attributes of the holly and ivy with Jesus and the Virgin Mary: flower, berry, prickle and bark, which respectively represent purity, blood, the Crown of Thorns and the drink of wine mixed with gall, a bitter herb which Jesus was offered but refused as he was led to his crucifixion (Matthew 27:34).

The chorus contains some interesting historical and natural references:

O, the rising of the sun / The running of the deer / The playing of the merry groan / Sweet singing in the choir.

The rising of the sun refers to the rebirth and reappearance of the sun after Midwinter and heralds the new year.

The running of the deer refers to the tradition of hunting on the day following the Winter Solstice. Holly is a winter browsing plant for deer and, historically, people would certainly have felt the need to defend their 'hollins' from them. It might be an activity being described in this line of the verse. Thankfully, this hunt which at the height of its popularity evolved into the indiscriminate killing of any bird that could be taken, including songbirds, and which were then baked in pies, has been replaced by Christmas Bird Races, in which groups of enthusiasts travel across wide areas and compete to spot as many bird species as they can find. The Isle of Man's Christmas Bird Race might also be their modern version of the Manx 'wren hunt' - another cruel tradition.

The playing of the merry groan refers to a stringed 'renaissance instrument' that would have accompanied carol singers. Maddy Prior's rendition, as with most modern versions, replaces 'groan' with 'organ' (I'm not sure if the anagram of organ/groan is accidental or intentional), but it feels more clumsy than the original and doesn't rhyme or fit the metre. The original lyrics included 'groan' in the published broadside*.

Sweet singing in the choir. The pre-modern English word for choir would apparently have been pronounced 'keer', which of course rhymes with 'deer'. Who doesn't like getting together at this darkest time of year with like-minded souls for a satisfying sing-along? Wassail!

* A broadside was a large format print designed to be pasted to a wall and used for public notices amongst other things and was popular in the 18th and 19th Centuries. The first printed version of The Holly and the Ivy was printed on a broadside around 1711, although the exact date can only be estimated. Limited numbers of broadsides were also produced for things such as public executions! 

Available here