Christmas Carols and Their Stories
Puzzle 12 · Old English Folk Carols · Page 26 in print
I Saw Three Ships
Cecil Sharp collected a version of I Saw Three Ships called As I Sat on a Sunny Bank from a singer who remembered the children of Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, performing it.
Jump to a word
The words
Brass Band
The kind of band that made this carol a favourite.
Christmas Day
The day the ships sail in, repeated in every line.
Fair Lady
The lady who sails with Joseph in the broadside version.
Kentish
The Kent version of the carol printed by Husk.
Morning
Christmas morning, the time of the ships’ arrival.
Nancy Dawson
Old popular air used for one of Sharp’s tunes.
Ritson
Antiquary who printed mid-1500s lines about a Christmas ship.
Saint Michael
The saint who steers the ship in the mid-1500s Christmas verse Sandys compared with the carol.
Ships
The three ships that come sailing in.
Staffordshire
County also named as the home of The Sunny Bank version.
Sunny Bank
The bank where the singer sits in the widely printed version.
Husk, Songs of the Nativity (opens a new tab) · Sharp, English Folk-Carols (opens a new tab)
Sycamore
The tree the singer sits under in the Kentish version.
Virgin Mary
One of the passengers in the Kentish version.
Warwickshire
County said to be the home of The Sunny Bank version.
Whistle
Joseph whistles while his lady sings in the broadside version.
Sources
- Gresham College, lecture transcript: Jeremy Summerly, ‘The 19th-century Taming of the Christmas Carol, from St Erth to Truro’ (8 December 2015)gresham.ac.uk
- William Sandys, Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern (London: Richard Beckley, 1833); Internet Archive scan (University of California)Internet Archive
- William Henry Husk (ed.), Songs of the Nativity (London: John Camden Hotten); Internet Archive scan (UCLA), catalogue date [1884?]Internet Archive
- Cecil J. Sharp, English Folk-Carols (London: Novello; Taunton: Barnicott and Pearce, 1911); Internet Archive scanInternet Archive