I have often wondered about the
origin of some of the lyrics
in the song "Twelve Days of
Christmas."
And the web site http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/
cited in yesterday's blog has some
interesting information.
The origin of the Twelve Days of Christmas
song
may go back to the troubadors of
13th-century France,
but later was a children's game of memory
requiring each player to recite a portion
of the song correctly
or pay a forfeit of some kind.
The words were recited start to finish,
then reversed
for a total of 23 lines.
The thing I find most interesting is the
process of "folk-etymology,"
which caused the original lyrics to change
over the years because people mis-heard or
misunderstood them.
For example, yesterday was the 5th day of
Christmas;
which most of us recognize in the refrain
"five golden rings."
photo courtesy of morguefile.com
But the site Hymns and Carols says the original lyric was more
likely
"five goldspinks," meaning
goldfinches.
Another possibility for the original lyric
is five gulders,
which is a name for turkeys.
This folk-etymology also affected
"four calling birds,"
originally four colley birds which are blackbirds.
The lyrics "partridge in a pear
tree" may result from confusion
of the French word for partridge, perdrix "pear dree"
which sounds nearly like "pear
tree" in English.
The Hymns
and Carols web site also
includes several different versions of the song.
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