Christmas Carols and Their Stories
Puzzle 53 · American Carols · Page 77 in print
We Three Kings
The tune of We Three Kings sounded so old that it was cited as an “ancient carol” in England and the United States, though John Henry Hopkins Jr. had written it himself.
Jump to a word
The words
Balthazar
The third king, who sings the fourth verse.
Church Journal
The newspaper Hopkins edited, which announced the carol in 1858.
E Minor
The key of the carol’s verses.
Epiphany
The feast for which the carol was written.
Episcopal
Hopkins’s church; he was an Episcopal clergyman.
Gaspard
The first king, who sings the second verse in Hopkins’s score.
Hopkins
John Henry Hopkins Jr., who wrote the words and music.
Melchior
The second king, who sings the third verse.
New York
City of Trinity School and of Hopkins’s Church Journal.
Orient
The East, named in the carol’s original title Three Kings of Orient.
Pastoral Staff
A bishop’s staff, among the church objects Hopkins designed.
Trinity School
New York school where the carol was sung in December 1858.
Trio
The first and last verses, sung as a trio by the three kings.
Vermont
State where Hopkins’s father was bishop and Hopkins studied.
Williamsport
Pennsylvania town where Hopkins became rector of Christ Church in 1876.
Sources
- John H. Hopkins Jr., Carols, Hymns, and Songs (New York: Church Book Depository, 1863), archive.org scan carolshym00hopkInternet Archive
- Hymnology Archive, David W. Music, “We Three Kings” (2024)Hymnology Archive
- Charles F. Sweet, A Champion of the Cross: Being the Life of John Henry Hopkins, S.T.D. (New York: James Pott, 1894), archive.org scanInternet Archive
- John Julian, A Dictionary of Hymnology, rev. ed. (London: John Murray, 1907), vol. 2, archive.org scanInternet Archive