"Down in Yon Forest" is a traditional English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 Christmas carol

Christmas carol

A Christmas carol is a carol whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas or the winter season in general and which are traditionally sung in the period before Christmas.-History:...

 dating to the Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

 era.

The carol has been arranged in modern English by Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...

, John Jacob Niles

John Jacob Niles

John Jacob Niles was an American composer, singer, and collector of traditional ballads. Called the "Dean of American Balladeers", Niles was an important influence on the American folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s, with Joan Baez, Burl Ives, and Peter, Paul and Mary, among others,...

 and John Rutter

John Rutter

John Milford Rutter CBE is a British composer, conductor, editor, arranger and record producer, mainly of choral music.-Biography:Born in London, Rutter was educated at Highgate School, where a fellow pupil was John Tavener. He read music at Clare College, Cambridge, where he was a member of the...

, among others. It has been recorded by artists including Joan Baez

Joan Baez

Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....

, Martyn Bates with Max Eastley

Max Eastley

Max Eastley is a sound and visual artist. He is part of the Cape Farewell Climate Change project . He studied painting and graphic art at Newton Abbot Art School and then went on to gain a BA in Fine Art at Middlesex University . He is a sculptor , musician and composer...

, Shirley Collins

Shirley Collins

Shirley Elizabeth Collins MBE is a British folksinger who was a significant contributor to the English Folk Revival of the 1960s and 1970s...

, Bruce Cockburn

Bruce Cockburn

Bruce Douglas Cockburn OC is a Canadian folk/rock guitarist and singer-songwriter. His most recent album was released in March 2011. He has written songs in styles ranging from folk to jazz-influenced rock to rock and roll.-Biography:...

, Burl Ives

Burl Ives

Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives was an American actor, writer and folk music singer. As an actor, Ives's work included comedies, dramas, and voice work in theater, television, and motion pictures. Music critic John Rockwell said, "Ives's voice .....

 (on Christmas Day in the Morning

Christmas Day in the Morning (Burl Ives album)

Christmas Day in the Morning is the first of several Christmas albums by the folk singer Burl Ives. Subtitled Yuletide Folk Songs, this album includes seven traditional Christmas carols, from the well-known "What Child Is This?" to the little-known "Down in Yon Forest" and "The Seven Joys of...

), John McCutcheon

John McCutcheon

John McCutcheon is an American folk music singer and multi-instrumentalist who has produced 34 albums since the 1970s. He is regarded as a master of the hammered dulcimer, and is also proficient on many other instruments including guitar, banjo, autoharp, mountain dulcimer, fiddle, and...

, Jean Ritchie

Jean Ritchie

Jean Ritchie is an American folk singer, songwriter, and Appalachian dulcimer player.- Out of Kentucky :Abigail and Balis Ritchie of Viper, Kentucky had 14 children, and Jean was the youngest...

, Bob Rowe

Bob Rowe

Robert J. “Bob” Rowe is a noted musical performer and recording artist. He is also well known as a crusader for residents of long term care facilities....

, Andreas Scholl

Andreas Scholl

Andreas Scholl is a German countertenor, a male classical singer in the alto vocal range. He is noted as a specialist in Baroque music.-Childhood:...

, Steeleye Span

Steeleye Span

Steeleye Span are an English folk-rock band, formed in 1969 and remaining active today. Along with Fairport Convention they are amongst the best known acts of the British folk revival, and were among the most commercially successful, thanks to their hit singles "Gaudete" and "All Around My Hat"....

, Woven Hand

Woven Hand

Wovenhand is a band from Denver, Colorado led by former 16 Horsepower lead singer David Eugene Edwards. Woven Hand's music combines elements of neofolk, alternative country, post-rock, punk, industrial music, folk rock, old-time music and native American music, among other influences.-History:The...

, and the choir of Clare College, Cambridge

Clare College, Cambridge

Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1326, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. Clare is famous for its chapel choir and for its gardens on "the Backs"...

.

Lyrics

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

External links

• "Down in Yon Forest / Tien Arbaren" (Simple melody score with English and Esperanto lyrics.)