Away in a manger, no crib for a bed,
The little Lord Jesus laid down His sweet head;
The stars in the bright sky looked down where He lay,
The little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay.
The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes,
But little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes;
I love Thee, Lord Jesus, look down from the sky,
And stay by my cradle till morning is nigh.
Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay
Close by me forever, and love me, I pray;
Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care,
And fit us for heaven to live with Thee there.
Public domain hymn text (c. 1885). Words by Anonymous.
The Story Behind the Hymn
This hymn's original author remains genuinely unknown, despite a long-standing and once widely repeated but now thoroughly discredited nineteenth-century tradition that credited it to the German Reformation leader Martin Luther, supposedly written for his own children — a story now understood by hymnologists to have been a marketing invention, likely created to boost the carol's appeal and sense of historic pedigree by connecting it to Luther's already famous name, since no such hymn appears anywhere in Luther's own extensive and well-documented body of writing.
The carol first appeared in print in American Lutheran Sunday school materials in the 1880s, suggesting an American rather than German origin despite the false Luther attribution, and its actual author has never been reliably identified, remaining one of the relatively few widely sung and beloved hymns in this entire collection whose writer cannot be named with any confidence at all.
James R. Murray, an American music editor, composed the tune most commonly used in the United States, publishing it in 1887 specifically as part of a collection intended for children's use, consistent with the carol's simple, gentle language clearly written with young children specifically in mind as both singers and subject — the second verse's closing request, 'stay by my cradle till morning is nigh,' places the singing child directly alongside the infant Christ in the manger, asking for the same divine presence and protection.
The carol remains one of the most widely taught and sung Christmas hymns specifically within children's and Sunday school settings worldwide, its uncertain, contested authorship — complete with a debunked but once widely believed false attribution to one of history's most famous religious reformers — standing in curious contrast to its now well-established and enduring popularity across generations of small children learning it as often their very first Christmas hymn.
