We three kings of Orient are,
Bearing gifts we traverse afar,
Field and fountain, moor and mountain,
Following yonder star.
O star of wonder, star of night,
Star with royal beauty bright,
Westward leading, still proceeding,
Guide us to thy perfect light.
Born a King on Bethlehem’s plain,
Gold I bring to crown Him again,
King forever, ceasing never,
Over us all to reign.
Frankincense to offer have I,
Incense owns a Deity nigh;
Prayer and praising, all men raising,
Worship Him, God most high.
Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
Breathes a life of gathering gloom;
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying,
Sealed in the stone-cold tomb.
Public domain hymn text (1857). Words by John Henry Hopkins Jr..
The Story Behind the Hymn
John Henry Hopkins Jr. was an American Episcopal clergyman who wrote both the words and music of this hymn in 1857 while serving as music director at the General Theological Seminary in New York City, originally composing it for a Christmas pageant performed by seminary students and their families rather than for wider congregational publication.
Hopkins built the hymn around Matthew 2:1-12, the account of magi — wise men or astrologers from the East, whose exact number is never actually specified in the biblical text itself — who follow a star to find the infant Christ and present Him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The now-common tradition specifying exactly three kings derives entirely from the number of gifts mentioned in the biblical account, a popular assumption Hopkins's own hymn helped further cement in the wider cultural imagination despite the Gospel text itself never actually stating how many magi made the journey.
Each of the hymn's individual verses is written to be sung by a different one of the three magi in turn, each explaining the specific symbolic meaning of the particular gift they personally carry — gold representing Christ's kingship, frankincense (a valuable incense used in ancient worship) representing His divinity, and myrrh (a bitter embalming spice used to prepare bodies for burial) foreshadowing His eventual suffering and death — giving the hymn an unusually structured, almost theatrical format built for alternating solo voices representing distinct characters, well suited to its original use in a live seminary Christmas pageant.
Hopkins is generally credited as the first American to write both the words and music of a widely popular Christmas carol, and the hymn remains one of relatively few Christmas hymns to focus specifically on the visit of the magi (traditionally commemorated on Epiphany, January 6th) rather than on the nativity itself, giving it a somewhat distinct liturgical role compared to most other Christmas carols represented elsewhere in this collection.
