I Saw Three Ships ~ Another ancient Christmas song

A more modern lyric of the original Forbes's Cantus (1666) in Opie's Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, 2nd ed. (no. 471 [p. 456])

I was going to launch ito one of my history lessons at this point but it has laready been done very well for this song. For full and alternate versions plus more info visit:
http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/i_saw_three_ships.htm
This is from that page:

"The legend about sailing into landlocked Bethlehem can be traced back to the 12th century when three ships brought the relics of the purported Wise Men to Koln, Germany. From this story evolved the English folk carol "I Saw Three Ships," which, it is thought, comes from the 15th century. The "three ships" refers to the belief that there were three Wise Men — which comes from the number of gifts, although the number of Wise Men has been estimated from two to twelve over the centuries. Over the passage of time, the Holy Family was substituted for the Magi. Ian Bradley gives a version from Kent-Sussex which mentions sitting under a holly tree and two travelers — Mary and Joseph — journeying to Bethlehem to pay taxes.

And, over the passage of time, as the text moved from village to village, and from country to country, the song acquired numerous different variations in texts and tunes (as seen above). According to Keyte and Parrott, editors of The New Oxford Book of Carols, the earliest printed text is from 1666 (John Forbes' Cantus, 2nd. ed.)."

Category:

Music

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• three
• ships
• come
• sailing
• in
• ancient
• christmas
• carol
• ukulele
• ukelele
• uke
• casetone2514

[freackykit]

Great stuff and very informative...Have a good xmas mate...you have cheared me many a time with your uke, and lets hope for many more tunes to come

[casetone2514]

Thank you & Merry Christmas

[daddiokng]

Very nice job.

[casetone2514]

Thanks very much

[ukeshale]

I do love the read ups you provide. Excellent playing :) Merry Christmas. Have a great one

[casetone2514]

Season's Greetings to you too, Shane. Thank you

[lotuskid999]

alright i am convinced, don't judge a book by its cover. totally great job man!

[ragebify]

I would love to be your friend dear

Must share our conversations via this e-mail

I admire you and love you very, very rageb.4321 @ hotmail.com

[casetone2514]

Thanks and Merry Christmas to you and yours!

[casetone2514]

Thanks very much - thought I'd give it 'The Treatment'

[casetone2514]

Darn it - I was going for "Chigley"

Thanks Mike