Green Grow The Rushes, Ho (or O) (aka The Twelve Prophets, or The Carol Of The Twelve Numbers, or The Teaching Song, or The Dilly Song), is a folk song (Roud #133) popular across the English-speaking world. It is sometimes sung as a Christmas carol. The song is not to be confused with Robert Burns' Green Grow The Rushes, O, with which it shares only the title. It is cumulative in structure, with each verse built up from the previous verse by appending a new stanza. The first verse is:
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The twelfth, cumulated, verse runs:
The lyrics of the song are in many places extremely obscure, and present an unusual mixture of Christian catechesis, astronomical mnemonics, and what may very well be pagan cosmology.
The song's origins are uncertain.
"Green grow the rushes, Ho (or O)" sounds sufficiently out of place that one is inclined to ascribe it to the same origin as "Fine flowers in the valley" in one version of the ballad The Cruel Mother – namely, an attempt to turn a mistaken line of Gaelic into its nearest English phonetic equivalent. Alternatively, given how folksongs tend to be hearty about fertility, the reference to fast-growing rushes may be a jesting allusion to male arousal -- a common theme in song and comedy until the late Empire age.
This refers to the twelve Apostles of Jesus, although the number has other meanings; it may originally have referred to the months of the year, for example.
These are the eleven Apostles who remained faithful (minus Judas Iscariot), or possibly St Ursula and her companions.
This refers to the ten commandments given to Moses.
The nine may be an astronomical reference: the Sun, Moon and five planets known before 1781 yields seven and to this may be added the sphere of the fixed stars and the Empyrean. It could potentially refer to the nine orders (or 'choirs') of angels.
The April rainers refer to the Hyades star cluster, called the 'rainy Hyades' in classical times, and rising with the sun in April – the Greeks thought of them as inaugurating the April rains. "Eight bold rangers" is probably a recent corruption.
The seven are probably either the Seven Sisters, the Pleiades star cluster, or perhaps Ursa Major, the Big Dipper. They may also be the planets or other stars. Alternatively, the seven stars may be those referred to in Revelation chapter 1. They are first cited in verse 16 as being held in the right hand of Christ and then explained as referring to seven angels of the seven early Christian churches. The seven stars could also be a reference to the Jewish cross, which is also a constellation over Israel.
The six seems to be a historical reference, but remains obscure. It is possible that they were members of a Saxon warband who beat the bounds of their fortified camp in a traditional way between AD 450 and 1066. Perhaps it is a Biblical reference to Ezekiel 9:2 - six men with swords come in a vision of the prophet to slaughter the people, whose leaders (8:16) have committed such sins as turning East to worship the Sun, and "have filled the land with violence". It may also be a corruption of 'waters', but what "the six bold waters" would refer to remains elusive.
This probably alludes to the practice of putting a pentagram at the door of a house to ward off witches and evil spirits; this was relatively common in the late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, and is alluded to in no shortage of literary works from or set in those eras. It can also refer to the five books of Moses - the pentateuch. An alternative interpretation is given by John Timpson in his book Timpson's England, where he states that it refers to five symbols displayed above the doorways of houses that would shelter Catholic priests. He gives an example a house where these can still be seen. The symbols above the door could also mean the mezuzah, which contains a section of the Torah and is inscribed with symbols.
This refers to the four Evangelists, Mathew, Mark, Luke and John.
Some have suggested that the three alluded to here are the Trinity, but this leaves "the rivals" unexplained. It could refer to the testy confluence of Roman, Christian, and Pagan religions in early Britain, or the older but ongoing racial tensions between the Norse, Celts and Picts, competing for the same territory. It could also refer to the three major religious traditions of Islam, Judaism and Christianity (assuming the song postdates Islam's arrival in the British Isles), or to the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, alluding to the previous line. These three give similar though slightly different accounts of the life of Christ. The "three rivals" could also be Peter, James and John, who are often mentioned together in the Gospels and at one time: "A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest" (Luke 22:24). However, only James and John are mentioned asking for special treatment in Mark 10:35-45, James and John's mother asks for her sons to have special treatment in Matthew 20:20-28, and the passage in Luke 22:24 uses a generic "them" to refer to all of the disciples. Peter is the next person spoken to by Jesus, but the ensuing conversation does not seem to refer to the discussion of a rivalry among the disciples. Pastor Paul Kolch of Trinity Lutheran Church in Sacramento taught that the three referred to Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego, who resisted burning in the fiery furnace and were "rivals" to the Babylonians.
Some suggest it refers to three similar and adjacent mountains in Wales, Yr Eifl.
It has also been suggested that "rivals" is a corruption of "the arrivals" and refers to the three Magi of the Nativity arriving at Jesus' cradle; or that it is a corruption of the Yorkshire "thirdings" or "thridings", meaning "three" and refers to the Christian trinity.[1]
Another possibility is that this line refers to Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, the three goddesses between whom the Judgement of Paris was made.
The two remain obscure. Jesus and John the Baptist have been suggested, as have the holly and the ivy (although the holly berry is red and the ivy berry is black, both have white wood and are evergreen). Pagan tradition also has the holly and the ivy as male and female, so they are not both "boys". The two may, instead, be holly and mistletoe (which has white berries with green branches), which would align more closely with the tradition of the defeat at Yule of the Holly King by the Oak King (mistletoe 'traditionally' grows on oak trees, although it will grow on other types of tree). Robert Graves, indeed, suggested that they are the Holly King and Oak King. [2]
There is also some suggestion that the two may be the Old and New Testaments, perhaps referring to some mediaeval tradition. Another explanation is that the statues of St John and Our Lady which, in Christian Churches, flank the Crucifix on the Altar reredos or the Rood screen were, during Holy Week, bound with rushes to cover them. (During Holy Week, from Palm Sunday until Easter Day, all statues, crosses, and crucifixes are traditionally covered from view, and all flowers are removed from the Church). The two figures were portrayed in similar garments, hence "lily-white boys", and wrapped in rushes they were "Clothed all in green".
The phrase could also allude to an ancient ritual of painting two people from a village white and sending them off to die, thereby cleansing the village of its sins. The verse has also been changed to "lily-white doves" in some interpretations of the songs in reference to Noah's Ark, although "Clothed all in green" strongly suggests that the two "boys" were in some way connected with the growth of plants. At some scout camps the two is changed to "Two little Boyscouts clothed and all in green ho-ho".
One other explanation is that the boys referred to are the twins Castor and Pollux, both of whom appear in Greek mythology. As the constellation of Gemini is named after them, this would provide yet another astronomical reference in the song.
One would suppose that the "One" of the last line would be God, but God in the Middle Ages was more commonly thought of as the Trinity, and "One is one and one alone", if applied to God, sounds more like Jewish or Muslim theology than Christian in its strong insistence on the Divine unity.
A variant of this song is sung in the American Ozarks, entitled The Twelve Apostles. Its twelfth, cumulated, verse, is:[3]