Down in Yon Forest

Info

This carol dates to the Renaissance era. (source)

Lyrics

(Traditional English carol)

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.

In that hall there stands a bed:
The bells of Paradise I heard them ring:
It’s covered all over with scarlet so red:
And I love my Lord Jesus above anything.

At the bed-side there lies a stone:
The bells of Paradise I heard them ring:
Which the sweet Virgin Mary knelt upon:
And I love my Lord Jesus above anything.

Under that bed there runs a flood:
The bells of Paradise I heard them ring:
The one half runs water, the other runs blood:
And I love my Lord Jesus above anything.

At the bed’s foot there grows a thorn:
The bells of Paradise I heard them ring:
Which ever blows blossom since he was born:
And I love my Lord Jesus above anything.

Over that bed the moon shines bright:
The bells of Paradise I heard them ring:
Denoting our Saviour was born this night:
And I love my Lord Jesus above anything.

See also

YouTube

  • PDF of song with chords
  • MIDI file
  • Listen to the melody

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1 thought on “Down in Yon Forest”

  1. I remember singing this at school when I was 9 in 1960. Our headminstress was High Church, and revelled in morbid Catholic imagery, bleeding hearts and suchlike. We even had to endure her account and slides of the Oberammagau Passion Play she attended that year. So, it’s not surprising that such a dismally sonorous carol like this would appeal to her. She spent whole periods with the school choir striving to get the right depressing sound. Personally it gave me a chill, spooky feeling and sleepless nights, rather than a happy Xmas that year!

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