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The Wren / The King / Joy, Health, Love and Peace

[ Roud 32955 / Song Subject MAS1481 ; Ballad Index FO059 ; DT WRENSONG , WRENSN2 ; Mudcat 28750 ; trad.]

“The king was the wren. The wren was the king of the birds. In ancient religions the king was sacrificed every seven years for the fertility and good of the tribe. In some places (Ireland) the queen was royal and married new consorts to be sacrificed. The consort was treated well for seven years (or one year) and then sacrificed by the new consort. A wren was killed and dressed up in ribbons, etc. and carried around the village. This is from Pembrokeshire in South Wales, commemorating the wren-killing on St Stephen’s Day, 26 December. “Old Christmas”, still celebrated rather than 25 December is Twelfth Night.”
— Digital Tradition

Liam Clancy sang The Wran Song to collector Diane Hamilton in summer 1955. This recording was included in 1956 on the Tradition album of folk songs and dances from the Irish countryside, The Lark in the Morning.

Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick recorded The Wren in 1969 for their duo album Prince Heathen. This track was also included in 2006 on the Fellside anthology Midwinter. Carthy noted:

Collected by Andy Nisbet, formerly of Swansea University, from two old ladies in Pembrokeshire.

Steeleye Span with Martin Carthy sang it as The King on Steeleye’s second album Please to See the King. The record’s sleeve notes said:

The wren traditionally symbolised winter and the robin summer. On [St Stephen’s Day] in Pembrokeshire, where the song was collected, a wren was hunted and killed to symbolise the death of winter and then placed in a garlanded box and taken from door to door. At each house this song was sung and the occupants asked to pay to see the dead wren with the words “Please to see the King.”

This video shows Steeleye Span in John Pearse’s ATV programme “Music Room” in 1970:

A soundcheck rehearsal of The King from 1982 in Adelaide was released in 1999 on the CD A Rare Collection 1972-1996 and with overdubbed applause in 1983 on the Australian-only LP On Tour. A live recording from their War Child charity concert at The Forum, London on 2 1995 was released in 1999 on their Park double CD The Journey. Another live recording from the Maddy Prior, Family & Friends Christmas tour of 1999 was released on the CD Ballads and Candles. Another Steeleye Span performance was recorded live in Salisbury on 16 December 2002 and can be found on The Official Bootleg.

The Blue Water Folk sang The King in 1972 on their Folk Heritage album All the Good Times.

The Watersons recorded this song as Joy, Health, Love and Peace and with very minor differences in the verses for their 1977 LP Sound, Sound Your Instruments of Joy. A.L. Lloyd noted:

A wren-boys carol, sung by groups of boys and young men, masked and disguised, who on St Stephen’s Day (26 December) went from door to door carrying a holly bush on which was a dead wren, “the king of the birds”, or something to represent it. This rare song came to the Watersons from Andy Nisbet, who got it from “two old ladies in Pembrokeshire.”

A live recording from the Iron Horse, Northampton, USA of unknown date was released in 2004 as The King’s Song on the Watersons’ 4 CD anthology Mighty River of Song.

All mentioned studio recordings from Martin Carthy, Steeleye Span and the Watersons are joined together on CD 2 of the 4 CD Martin Carthy anthology The Carthy Chronicles too.

John Roberts, Tony Barrand, Fred Breunig and Steve Woodruff sang The Wren (The King) in 1981 on their Front Hall record The Second Nowell, and on the 1989 cmpilation album The Best of Nowell Sing We Clear 1975-1986.

Magpie Lane sang The King on their 1995 CD Wassail! A Country Christmas and Andy Turner sang it as part the 24 December 2012 entry of his blog A Folk Song a Week. They noted on their CD:

It was once customary for children in country districts to carry a dead wren, “the king of the birds”, from door to door on 26 December, collecting for money or sweets and chanting “Please to see the King”. A song learned by Martin Carthy from Betty and Dorothy Phillips of Hook, near Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire.

Jessica Radcliffe and Lisa Ekström sang The King in 2000 on their and Martin Simpson’s High Bohemia album Beautiful Darkness.

The Albion Christmas Band sang The King in 2003 on their Talking Elephant CD An Albion Christmas and in 2014 on their Rooksmere CD One for the Road.

Finest Kind sang Please to See the King on their 2004 Christmas album Feasts & Spirits. They noted:

There is an old just-so story about how the tiny wren wins a flying contest to determine who is the “king of all birds”: it hides on the eagle’s back and launches itself at the zenith of the raptor’s flight, thus flying highest of all. In England, the wren’s royal status was a mixed blessing for it: the Druids considered the bird sacred and ritually killed one at the darkest time of the year. This custom survived in English villages into the last century: on 26 December, St. Stephen’s Day, groups of “wren-boys” killed one of the unfortunate birds and went door to door carrying their prize suspended from a beribboned holly bush. Their song called on residents to come out and “see the king”. Happily, the excellent song survives to this day and the traditional slaughter does not (in Ireland, where wrenning is still practiced, they use a live wren).

Jon Boden sang The King as the 26 December 2010 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.

Kate Rusby sang The Wren on her 2011 Christmas album, While Mortals Sleep.

Emily Sanders, Chris Parkinson and Pete Morton sang The King in 2016 on their Fellside album The Magical Christmas Tree.

A Winter Union released The King as a Christmas download single in 2017. A live recording from Otford Memorial Hall, Kent, on 21 December 2018 was released a year later on their download album Live in Concert.

Joshua Burnell sang The King on a bonus CD of his 2019 album The Road to Horn Fair.

Doug Eunson and Sarah Matthews sang The King on their 2019 CD Chimes. They noted:

The King in this song is the Wren, whose death represents the end of Winter. The Wren would be displayed and garlanded and taken from door to door while this song was sung.

Lady Maisery and Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith sang The King on their 2019 winter album Awake, Arise. They noted:

In various parts of Britain a tradition has been maintained of hunting a wren, ‘the king of the birds’, to symbolise the death of winter. The wren is then dressed in ribbons and taken from door to door by ‘wrenboys’, accompanied by the singing of variants of this song.

Lisa O’Neill sang The Wren, The Wren on a 2019 single.

Burd Ellen sang Please to See the King in 2020 on their album Says the Never Beyond.

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

One of our favourite yuletide songs, we’ve paired it here with Crucaharan Cross—another polka from the Dingle Wren celebrations and the second on that De Danann recording!

Unthank | Smith sang The King on their 2023 album Nowhere and Everywhere. Rachel Unthank noted:

This song always takes me to a busy pub in the village of Greatham near Hartlepool, on Boxing Day. My Dad was a founder member of Redcar Sword Dancers, who perform the revived Greatham Mummers play and longsword dance every year, and then head to the pub for a good sing. Brian Pearce, who plays the character of the King in the play, always starts the singing off with this song, which is actually from Pembrokeshire, and I suspect Brian learnt it from the singing of The Watersons. The King in the song is a wren, king of the birds on Saint Stephen’s Day, when the tradition was to hunt the tiny bird and take it house to house in a cage or box decorated in ribbons.

Janice Burns and Jon Doran sang The Wren on their 2024 album Great Joy to the New. They noted:

Despite its diminutive size, the wren is known to be ‘The King of the Birds’ and a winter mascot (long predating the Victorian popularisation of robins). This song was collected in Pembrokeshire, Wales, and is firmly rooted in the wren hunting tradition, in which a wren is captured, killed, and paraded around the houses on St Stephen s Day.

See also the related songs Hunting the Wren on Steeleye Span’s album Live at Last, and Martin Carthy and June Tabor’s Hunting the Cutty Wren on the Mrs Ackroyd Band’s album Oranges and Lemmings.

Lyrics

Martin Carthy sings The Wren / Steeleye Span sing The King

Joy, health, love, and peace be all here in this place
By your leave we will sing concerning our king

Our king is well dressed in the silks of the best
In ribbons so rare, no king can compare

We have travelled many miles over hedges and stiles
In search of our king, unto you we bring

We have powder and shot to conquer the lot
We have cannon and ball to conquer them all

Old Christmas is past, Twelfth Night is the last,
And we bid you adieu, great joy to the new

The Watersons sing Joy, Health, Love and Peace

Joy, health, love, and peace be all here in this place
By your leave we will sing concerning our king

Our king is well dressed in the silks of the best
With the ribbons so rare, no king can compare

We have travelled many miles over hedges and stiles
In search of our king, unto you we bring

We have powder and shot for to conquer the lot
We have cannon and ball to conquer them all

Now Christmas is past, Twelfth Night is the last,
And we bid you adieu, great joy to the new

Acknowledgements

Transcribed from the singing of The Watersons by Garry Gillard.