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Down in Yon Forest / All Bells in Paradise / Castleton Carol

[ Roud 1523 ; Ballad Index L691 ; CorpusChristi at Old Songs ; VWML RVW1/2/134 , RoudFS/S157356 ; Mudcat 107543 ; trad.]

The Corpus Christi Carol or Falcon Carol is a Middle or Early Modern English hymn, first found by an apprentice grocer named Richard Hill in a manuscript written around 1504. The original writer of the carol remains anonymous. The earliest surviving record of the piece preserves only the lyrics and is untitled. It has survived in altered form in the folk tradition as the Christmas carol Down In Yon Forest. The structure of the carol is six stanzas, each with rhyming couplets. The tense changes in the fourth stanza from past to present continuous. [Wikipedia]

A.L. Lloyd sang the carol Down in Yon Forest unaccompanied in the 1950s on his 78 rpm record Down in Yon Forest / The Bitter Withy, and on his and Ewan MacColl’s 1956 Riverside LP Great British Ballads Not Included in the Child Collection. Kenneth S. Goldstein commented in the album’s booklet:

There is so little narrative in this exquisite religious folksongs that it is frequently designated as a lyric rather than a ballad. It is certainly a ballad, however, for, as G.H. Gerould has so aptly described it, “… it pictures an intensely dramatic situation and does so altogether in the manner of the genre.” (see The Ballad of Tradition, 1932, p. 33.)

It its earliest known form, the ballad appeared in a 15^th century manuscript into which it had probably been copied from the singing of contemporary carol singers. The first version reported from tradition was taken down from the singing of a young boy in North Staffordshire, England, before 1862 (see Notes and Queries, third series, II, 103).

Anne Gilchrist (in JFSS, IV, pp. 52-56) interpreted this ballad in terms of the Holy Grail legend. Christ’s blood was collected in the Grail by Joseph of Arimathea, and was borne to Avalon for safe-keeping and sanctification. The hall in the forest is the castle of the Grail, the bleeding knight is Jesus, the hound licking the blood may be Joseph (or possibly the Church), and the thorn mentioned in the last stanza is the Thorn of Glastonbury which blossoms once a year (on old Christmas Day) in honour of Jesus’ birth.

The ballad has been collected infrequently in England during this century. The version sung here by Lloyd was collected in 1908 by Ivor Gatty and Ralph Vaughan Williams from Mr Hall of Castleton, Derbyshire. An additional stanza (stanza 6) has been appended from the North Staffordshire version mentioned above.

The Black Country Three sang this carol as All Bells in Paradise in 1966 on their Transatlantic album The Black Country Three, and John Raven returned to this carol in 1975 on his Broadside album Ballad of the Black Country.

The Valley Folk sang this carol as All Bells in Paradise in 1968 as the title track of their Topic album of carols for all seasons, All Bells in Paradise. A.L. Lloyd commented in the album’s sleeve notes:

What’s the meaning of this mysterious song? Reams have been written about its symbology, with its suggestion of altar stone, sacrifice, maimed nobleman, mysterious dog. None of these mystical explanations seems quite satisfactory though there’s general agreement that the blood that ‘daily runs down’ is the sacramental blood of Christ, and the blossoming thorn is the miraculous Glastonbury tree. Whatever it means, it’s a queer brooding piece and it seems to have taken a good grip on the imagination of folk singers. The enterprising grocer’s apprentice Richard Hill jotted down a version of it at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and his notebook was discovered behind a bookcase around 1850. The carol lasted well, and good versions of it turned up, notably in the Midlands (North Staffordshire and Derbyshire) during the nineteenth century and in the early part of the twentieth.

Shirley Collins sang Down in Yon Forest on her 1976 LP The Sweet Primeroses. This recording was also included in her anthologies Fountain of Snow and Within Sound. She commented in the original album’s sleeve notes:

Many traditional British carols (The Cherry Tree Carol and The Bitter Withy are two examples) attempt to portray a Christ living a normal family life among the trees and fields of Britain. Like Blake, the writers wanted “The Countenance Drive” to look upon and bless the downs, pastures and forests of their native land. This carol evokes an unfamiliar setting: a dark forest, a gilded hall, the sound of bells; signs of blossom, blood and birth. Dolly has tried, through her arrangement, to match the medieval spirit of the symbols. Peter Kennedy collected this song from Mrs Hall in Castleton, Derbyshire [in 1957].

Strawhead sang Corpus Christi (Over Yonder’s a Park) in 1977 on their Traditional Sound Recordings album Farewell Musket, Pipe & Drum.

Mara! sang the Corpus Christi Carol in 1984 on their Plant Life album Images.

The Ripley Wayfarers sang Castleton Carol in 1985 on their album Down the Road.

The Voice Squad sang Down in Yon Forest on their 1992 album Holly Wood. Frank Harte noted:

This English religious song is said to have its origin somewhere back in the sixteenth century. We have sung this song for many years at our Christmas Carol sessions in Dublin.

Magpie Lane sang Down in Yon Forest in 1995 on their Beautiful Jo CD Wassail! and their Andy Turner sang it as the 8 December 2019 entry of his project A Folk Song a Week.

Coope Boyes & Simpson sang Down in Yon Forest in 1998 on their No Masters CD A Garland of Carols. They noted:

“Carol singing has always been a feature of Castleton life,” wrote the Rev. Brooksbank, Vicar of Castleton in Derbyshire in 1929, “it is said that the children are brought up on carols.” He described how the lead miners who lived in the village would gather underground on Christmas Eve and put a candle on a big piece of lead ore. They would then sing this carol and the others for which the village was famous until the candle was burnt out. Richard Hill, a London tradesman, wrote down the first known version of the carol in his Commonplace Book in the late fourteenth century—though it may have been in circulation before then. This version was collected in 1908, by the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams and his friend Ivor Gatty from Mr Hall of Castleton [VWML RVW1/2/134, RoudFS/S157356] . It is still sung in the village.

On their 2003 album Fire and Sleet and Candlelight, Coope Boyes & Simpson, Fi Fraser, Jo Freya and Georgina Boyes sang an American version of Down in Yon Forest. They noted:

Reputedly collected in 1933 from the singing of Amos Curtis, a Holiness preacher in Cherokee County, North Carolina by John Jacob Niles (1892-1980) [VWML RoudFS/S338792] .

The first recorded set of words for this most mysterious of carols was copied into his commonplace book by the London tradesman Richard Hill in the 1390’s. Nothing more is known of it until 1862, when a version—noted down a few years earlier from a young morris dancer from north Staffordshire—was published in the Antiquarian magazine, Notes and Queries. But there was no direct contact with the carol in performance—and so no idea of its tune—until the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) was collecting folksongs in Castleton, North Derbyshire in 1908 and notated a version from Mr J. Hall—probably James Hall of Lodge Cottage or Joseph Hall of Millbridge.

Charlotte Greig sang The Bells of Paradise on her 1999 album Down in the Valley.

Alva sang The Bells of Paradise in 2003 as the title track of their Beautiful Jo album The Bells of Paradise. This track was also included in 2007 on the WildGoose anthology Songs of Witchcraft and Magic. Alva noted on their album:

Sung to Vaughan Williams by Mr J. Hall from Castleton, Derbyshire in 1909, this is a remarkable survival of the Corpus Christi Carol, from a 16^th-century commonplace book belonging to a London grocer named Richard Hill. Commentators have attempted to explain the significance of this mysterious carol with a number of ingenious theories, which have involved the Grail legend; the Passion of Christ; the ‘miraculous’ thorn at Glastonbury, and even concern for Henry VIII’s treatment of the church. Fascinating as these are, we just think it’s a great song for its mystery and beauty.

Maddy Prior sang Down in Yon Forest in 2004 on Steeleye Span’s CD Winter. She noted:

This strange song was collected [in 1908] by Vaughan Williams from Mr [James?] Hall of Castleton, Derbyshire. It is long thought to have reference to the Grail Legend, sometimes incorporating a “stone with Corpus Christi written thereon,” the Grail in some ancient instances being a stone rather than a cup.

Bella Hardy sang Down in Yon Forest in 2007 on her first album, Night Visiting.

Paul and Liz Davenport sang Down in Yon Forest in 2008 on their Hallamshire Traditions CD Songbooks.

Kerfuffle recorded this as Castleton Carol in 2008 for their fourth CD, To the Ground. Their lyrics differ from Maddy Prior’s in a few words only.

Corncrow sang Down in Yon Forest in 2012 on their CD Christmas Dinner for Horses.

Kate Rusby sang Paradise on her 2017 CD Angels & Men.

A Winter Union sang All Bells in Paradise The King at a concert at Otford Memorial Hall, Kent, on 21 December 2018. A recording of this was released a year later on their download album Live in Concert.

This February 2019 home video shows Janice Burns and Jon Doran singing Down in Yon Forest:

Doug Eunson and Sarah Matthews sang Down in Yon Forest on their 2019 CD Chimes. They noted:

Collected in Castleton, Derbyshire in 1908, here is our take on this unusual traditional carol.

Stick in the Wheel sang Down in Yon Forest on their 2019 mixtape Against the Loathsome Beyond.

Burd Ellen sang the Corpus Christi Carol on their 2020 album Says the Never Beyond.

The Wilderness Yet sang the Corpus Christi Carol on their 2020 album and 2021 CD Turn the Year Round. They noted:

Middle English carol first written down by an apprentice grocer named Richard Hill around 1504. We also sing a version called Down In Yon Forest learned from the Voice Squad. Rowan [Piggott]’s arrangement here however, is based on the descending guitar lines of Jeff Buckley.

A Winter Union sang All Bells in Paradise on their 2023 album Sooner After Solstice.

Lyrics

A.L. Lloyd sings Down in Yon Forest (78 rpm HMV record)

Down in yon forest there stands a hall
      The bells of Paradise, I heard them ring;
It’s covered all over with purple and pall,
      And I love my Lord Jesus above anything.

And in that hall there stands a bed,
It’s covered all over with scarlet so red.

And in that bed there lies a knight,
Whose wounds they do bleed by day and by night.

And by that bed-side there kneels a maid,
And there she do weep by night and by day.

And by that bed-side there flows a flood,
The one half runs water, the other half blood.

And at that bed’s foot there lies a hound,
A-licking the blood as it daily runs down.

And at that bed’s head there grows a thorn,
Whichever blows blossom since he was born.

A.L. Lloyd sings Down in Yon Forest on Great British Ballads Not Included in the Child Collection

Down in yon forest there stands a hall
      The bells of Paradise, I heard them ring;
It’s covered all over with purple so tall,
      And I love my Lord Jesus above anything.

And in that hall there stands a bed,
It’s covered all over with scarlet so red.

And by that bed-side there lies a stone,
The sweet Virgin Mary a-kneeling thereon.

An on that bed there lies a knight,
Whose wounds they do bleed by day and by night.

And under that bed there runs a flood,
The one half runs water, the other runs blood.

At the bed’s foot there lies a hound,
A-licking the blood as it daily runs down.

At the bed’s head there grows a thorn,
Which ever has blossomed since Jesus was born.

Shirley Collins sings Down in Yon Forest

Down in yon forest there stands a hall
      The bells of Paradise, I heard them ring;
It’s gilded all over with purple and pall,
      And I love my Lord Jesus above anything.

Down in that hall there is a bed,
All scarlet the cover lets over it spread.

Down under that bed there runs a flood,
A half it runs water, a half it runs blood.

Down at the bed-feet there springs a thorn,
It blooms its white blossoms the day he was born.

And over that place the moon shines bright,
To show that our Saviour was born that night.

Coope Boyes & Simpson, Fi Fraser, Jo Freya and Georgina Boyes sing Down in Yon Forest

Down in yon forest there be a hall,
      Sing May, Queen May, sing Mary!
’Tis coverlided over with purple and pall.
      Sing all good men for the new-born Baby!

Oh in that hall is a pallet bed,
’Tis stained with blood like cardinal red.

And at that pallet is a stone
On which the Virgin did atone.

Under that hall is a gushing flood:
From Christ’s own side ’tis water and blood.

Beside that bed a shrub tree grows,
Since He was born it blooms and blows.

Oh, on that bed a young Squire sleeps,
His wounds are sick, and see, he weeps.

Oh hail yon hall where none can sin,
Cause it’s gold outside and silver within.

Maddy Prior sings Down in Yon Forest

Down in yon forest there stands a hall
      The bells of Paradise I heard them ring;
Covered all over with purple and pall,
      And I love my Lord Jesus above anything.

And in that hall there stands a bed,
Covered all over with scarlet so red.

At the bed-side there stands a stone,
Where the sweet Virgin Mary has knelt upon.

Under that bed there runs a flood,
The one half runs water, the other runs blood.

At the bed foot there grows a thorn,
Which ever blows blossom since Adam was born.

Over the bed the moon shines bright,
To show our Saviour was born this night.

Burd Ellen sing the Corpus Christi Carol

He bore him up, he bore him down,
He bore him into an orchard brown.
Lully, lullay, lully, lullay!
The falcon has borne my make away.

And in that hall there standeth a bed:
It was hanged with gold so red;
Lully, lullay, lully, lullay!
The falcon has borne my make away.

And on that bed there lieth a knight,
His woundis bledyng day and night;
Lully, lullay, lully, lullay!
The falcon has borne my make away.

And by that side there kneleth a maid,
And she wepeth both night and day;
Lully, lullay, lully, lullay!
The falcon has borne my make away.

And by that bed there standeth a stone,
“Corpus Christi” written thereon.
Lully, lullay, lully, lullay!
The falcon has borne my make away.