The first Noel, the angel did say,
Was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay;
In fields where they lay, keeping their sheep,
On a cold winter’s night that was so deep.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel,
Born is the King of Israel.
They looked up and saw a star,
Shining in the east, beyond them far,
And to the earth it gave great light,
And so it continued both day and night.
And by the light of that same star,
Three wise men came from country far;
To seek for a king was their intent,
And to follow the star wherever it went.
Public domain hymn text (Traditional, likely 17th-18th century). Words by Anonymous.
The Story Behind the Hymn
This carol's original author and composer are both unknown, and unlike most other hymns represented throughout this collection it cannot be attributed to any single identifiable writer or dated with real precision — it appears to have circulated for a considerable period through English oral folk tradition before first being formally published in written form in the early nineteenth century, in a collection of traditional carols compiled specifically to preserve songs that were, by that point, already considered old and at risk of being forgotten.
The carol's title word 'Noel' derives from the French word for Christmas, itself ultimately drawn from the Latin 'natalis,' meaning 'birth,' and its inclusion in an otherwise entirely English-language carol reflects the considerable cross-Channel exchange of Christmas carols and customs between England and France that occurred over many centuries of English history, particularly following the Norman Conquest.
The carol's melody has been noted by musicologists for an unusual structural quirk: its melodic range is identical across all its individual musical phrases, giving it a comparatively narrow and repetitive musical structure that some scholars have suggested may indicate the tune was originally intended for a different, possibly simpler purpose before being adapted for this specific carol text, though the exact original source of the melody, like the carol's own authorship, remains unknown.
Despite its genuinely uncertain and largely undocumented origins, the carol has become one of the most widely known and frequently performed Christmas carols in the English language, its simple, direct retelling of the shepherds' vision and the guiding star making it a particularly common choice for children's nativity pageants and school Christmas programs across the English-speaking world, sung by generations of congregations and schoolchildren who have no more information about who actually wrote it than scholars do today.
