A New Dial and These Twelve Days – Medieval Ballads

The words to the popular Christmas carol, The Twelve Days of Christmas, while clever and interesting, don't make a lot of sense to many people. One of the reasons they don't make sense to many people is that the carol originated in the middle ages and is thus at least five or six hundred years old if not older. Since language changes over time many of the words in the song, while still common and in use today, don't have the same meaning today as in the past. For instance, the five golden rings refer to five ring necked pheasants (who have a golden ring of feathers on their necks) and not to five pieces of golden jewelry to be worn on ones fingers.

Because of changes in language and the symbolism in the gifts, many people have concluded that the gifts in the song are really codes for religious symbols. This theory has been put forward most strongly by a Roman Catholic priest by the name of Father Hal Stockert who, as a result of some discoveries made while doing research on an unrelated topic, advanced the hypothesis that the words were a code used by Catholic parents in England during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when the practice of the Catholic religion in England was outlawed. Many people have overlooked the fact that Fr. Stockert advanced this as a hypothesis and suggested that it would be a good topic for someone else to research and prove or disprove, and have, instead, accepted the hypothesis as a proven historical fact.

While I feel that the Twelve Days of Christmas, as it has come down to us, is a secular carol it may have evolved from an earlier religious song or songs. Two old French songs, A New Dial and These Twelve Days have the same structure as the Twelve Days of Christmas and both are religious in nature. It could be that this type of ballad, with repeating verses as one progresses through it, was popular and The Twelve Days of Christmas was put together using the same format but independent of these two songs or, over time people could have begun substituting secular symbols for the religious ones and sung the song while partying. Reading the three songs, it is clear that words and images in the The Twelve Days of Christmas are more suited for a party while the words and images in A New Dial and These Twelve Days are more suited for helping children, and possibly adults, memorize basic religious truths.

It is important to remember that all of these songs were popular ballads which were passed around and sung with people often improvising. They were not printed, copyrighted and distributed like published works are today so it is not unusual for there to be multiple variations of a song or multiple songs that are similar in many respects. The versions we have today are those that were written down and published after the invention of the movable type printing press by Gutenberg in the mid-fifteenth century. With the Internet we can expect to see more copies of old versions of these songs as old books are digitized and published on the Internet and older letters, diaries and other unpublished written works from prior to Gutenberg's invention are digitized and published on the Internet.

A New Dial*

What are they that are but one?
We have one God alone
In heaven above sits on His throne.

What are they which are by two?
Two testaments, the old and new,
We do acknowledge to be true.

What are they which are but three?
Three persons in the Trinity
Which make one God in unity.

What are they which are but four
Four sweet Evangelists there are,
Christ's birth, life, death which do declare.

What are they which are but five?
Five senses, like five kings, maintain
In every man a several reign.

What are they which are but six?
Six days to labor is not wrong,
For God himself did work so long.
What are they which are but seven?
Seven liberal arts hath God sent down
With divine skill man's soul to crown.

What are they which are but eight?
Eight Beatitudes are there given
Use them right and go to heaven.

What are they which are but nine?
Nine Muses, like the heaven's nine spheres,
With sacred tunes entice our ears.

What are they which are but ten?
Ten statutes God to Moses gave
Which, kept or broke, do spill or save.

What are they which are but eleven?
Eleven thousand virgins did partake
And suffered death for Jesus' sake.

What are they which are but twelve?
Twelve are attending on God's son;
Twelve make our creed. The Dial's done.

* Lyrics Source: http://www.new-life.net/chrtms18.htm

In Those Twelve Days**

Chorus
In those twelve days, and in those twelve days, let us be glad,
For God of his power hath all things made.

What is that which is but one?
What is that which is but one?
We have but one God alone
In Heaven above sits on his throne.

Chorus

What are they which are but two?
What are they which are but two?
Two Testaments, as we are told,
The one is New and the other Old.

Chorus

What are they that are but three?
What are they that are but three?
Three persons in the Trinity,
The Father, Son, and Ghost Holy.

Chorus

What are they that are but four?
What are they that are but four?
Four Gospels written true,
John, Luke, Mark, and Matthew.

Chorus

What are they that are but five?
What are they that are but five?
Five senses we have to tell,
God grant us grace to use them well.

Chorus

What are they that are but six?
What are they that are but six?
Six ages this world shall last,
Five of them are gone and past.

Chorus

What are they that are but seven?
What are they that are but seven?
Seven days in the week have we,
Six to work and the seventh holy.

Chorus

What are they that are but eight?
What are they that are but eight?
Eight beatitudes are given,
Use them well and go to Heaven.

Chorus

What are they that are but nine?
What are they that are but nine?
Nine degrees of Angels high
Which praise God continually.

Chorus

What are they that are but ten?
What are they that are but ten?
Ten Commandments God hath given,
Keep them right and go to Heaven.

Chorus

What are they that are but eleven?
What are they that are but eleven?
Eleven thousand virgins did partake
And suffered death for Jesus' sake.

Chorus

What are they that are but twelve?
What are they that are but twelve?
Twelve Apostles Christ did chuse
To preach the Gospel to the Jews.

Chorus

**Source: The Hymns and Carols of Christmas