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The Field Mice Carol (Grahame​/​Hadaway)

from Dancing Day: songs for Christmas and Yule by Merry Hadaway

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about

Some of you will already have realised that this is a setting of the carol that the young field mice sing to Mole and Ratty in Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind in the Willows".

I've loved the book since I was very small, and even as a child I always preferred the thoughtful, quiet chapters focusing on Mole and Ratty, to the cringe-comedy of the various (mis)adventures of Toad. "Dulce Donum", the Christmas-themed chapter, is a Christian counterpoint to the more Pagan focus of "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn", the latter set in high summer as "Dulce Donum" is in midwinter. Both involve a peril averted, an intense, loving study of the friendship between Mole and Ratty, and a transcendent contact with something greater than themselves. "Dulce Donum" starts with our heroes lost in a snowstorm, proceeds through a near-argument caused by Mole's insecurities and Ratty's impatience, takes them finally back to the long-neglected home Mole left at the beginning of the book, and culminates in an impromptu Christmas celebration at "Mole End".

The arrival of the field mice brings the Christmas spirit home to both Mole and Ratty, and also affirms very strongly that both singers and hearers are non-human animals. The moment of the birth of Jesus is demoted to the penultimate verse; the final verse is dedicated, with pardonable smugness, to the angels' pointing out that Christ's first worshippers were the animals who shared his stable.

When writing the tune for this one, I was influenced greatly by having been a choral singer for many years, both as a child and as an adult. At some point I'd love to adapt it for children's choir, with a nice juicy descant in the final verse. (If you want to adapt it first, however, I'll probably be delighted, so do get in touch about it!)

lyrics

1.
Villagers all, this frosty tide,
Let your doors swing open wide,
Though wind may follow, and snow beside,
Yet draw us in by your fire to bide;
Joy shall be yours in the morning!

2.
Here we stand in the cold and the sleet,
Blowing fingers and stamping feet,
Come from far away you to greet -
You by the fire and we in the street -
Bidding you joy in the morning!

3.
For ere one half of the night was gone,
Sudden a star has led us on,
Raining bliss and benison -
Bliss to-morrow and more anon,
Joy for every morning!

4.
Goodman Joseph toiled through the snow -
Saw the star o'er a stable low;
Mary she might not further go -
Welcome thatch, and litter below!
Joy was hers in the morning!

5.
And then they heard the angels tell
"Who were the first to cry 'Nowell'?
Animals all, as it befell,
In the stable where they did well!
Joy shall be theirs in the morning!"

credits

from Dancing Day: songs for Christmas and Yule, released December 6, 2014

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about

Merry Hadaway image

Merry Hadaway Stonehaven, UK

Folk singer, ukulele player and songwriter. Queer, disabled, trans, Christo-Pagan, powered by waves and mountains. :-)

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