“Da Jesu Krist geboren wart,
do was es kalt;
in ain klaines kripplein
er geleget wart.
Da stunt ain esel und ain rint,
die atmizten über das hailig kint
gar unverborgen.
Der ain raines herze hat, der darf nit sorgen.”[20][{22}]
It goes on to tell in naïve language the story of the wanderings of the Holy Family during the Flight into Egypt.
This carol type lasted, and continued to develop, in Austria and the Catholic parts of Germany through the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, and even in the nineteenth. In Carinthia in the early nineteenth century, almost every parish had its local poet, who added new songs to the old treasury.[{23}] Particularly popular were the Hirtenlieder or shepherd songs, in which the peasant worshippers joined themselves to the shepherds of Bethlehem, and sought to share their devout [46]emotions. Often these carols are of the most rustic character and in the broadest dialect. They breathe forth a great kindliness and homeliness, and one could fill pages with quotations. Two more short extracts must, however, suffice to show their quality.
How warm and hearty is their feeling for the Child:—
“Du herzliabste Muater, gib Acht auf dös Kind,
Es is ja gar frostig, thuas einfatschen gschwind.
Und du alter Voda, decks Kindlein schen zua,
Sonst hats von der Kölden und Winden kan Ruah.
Hiazt nemen mir Urlaub, o gettliches Kind,
Thua unser gedenken, verzeich unser Sünd.
Es freut uns von Herzen dass d'ankomen bist;
Es hätt uns ja niemand zu helfen gewist.”[21][{24}]
And what fatherly affection is here:—
“Das Kind is in der Krippen glögn,
So herzig und so rar!
Mei klâner Hansl war nix dgögn,
Wenn a glei schener war.
Kolschwarz wie d'Kirchen d'Augen sein,
Sunst aber kreidenweiss;
Die Händ so hübsch recht zart und fein,
I hans angrürt mit Fleiss.
Aft hats auf mi an Schmutza gmacht,
An Höscheza darzue;
O warst du mein, hoan i gedacht,
Werst wol a munter Bue.
Dahoam in meiner Kachelstub
Liess i brav hoazen ein,
Do in den Stâl kimt überâl
Der kalte Wind herein.”[22][{25}]
[47]We have been following on German ground a mediaeval tradition that has continued unbroken down to modern days; but we must now take a leap backward in time, and consider the beginnings of the Christmas carol in England.
Not till the fifteenth century is there any outburst of Christmas poetry in English, though other forms of religious lyrics were produced in considerable numbers in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. When the carols come at last, they appear in the least likely of all places, at the end of a versifying of the whole duty of man, by John Awdlay, a blind chaplain of Haghmon, in Shropshire. In red letters he writes:—