Green Grow the Rushes, O facts for kids

Green Grow the Rushes, O (alternatively "Ho" or "Oh") (also known as "The Twelve Prophets", "The Carol of the Twelve Numbers", "The Teaching Song", "The Dilly Song", or "The Ten Commandments"), is an English folk song (Roud #133). It is sometimes sung as a Christmas carol. It often takes the form of antiphon, where one voice calls and is answered by a chorus.

The song is not to be confused with Robert Burns's similarly titled "Green Grow the Rashes" nor with the Irish folk band Altan's song of the same name.

It is cumulative in structure, with each verse built up from the previous one by appending a new stanza. The first verse is:

I'll sing you one, O

Green grow the rushes, O

What is your one, O?

One is one and all alone

And evermore shall be so.

There are many variants of the song, collected by musicologists including Sabine Baring-Gould and Cecil Sharp from the West of England at the start of the twentieth century. The stanzas are clearly much corrupted and often obscure, but the references are generally agreed to be both Biblical and astronomical.

Lyrics

The twelfth, cumulated, verse runs:

I'll sing you twelve, O

Green grow the rushes, O

What are your twelve, O?

Twelve for the twelve Apostles

Eleven for the eleven who went to heaven,

Ten for the ten commandments,

Nine for the nine bright shiners,

Eight for the April Rainers.

Seven for the seven stars in the sky,

Six for the six proud walkers,

Five for the symbols at your door,

Four for the Gospel makers,

Three, three, the rivals,

Two, two, the lily-white boys,

Clothed all in green, O

One is one and all alone

And evermore shall be so.

Origins

The lyrics of the song are, in many places, exceedingly obscure, and present an unusual mixture of Christian catechesis, astronomical mnemonics, and what may be pagan cosmology. The musicologist Cecil Sharp, influential in the folklore revival in England, noted in his 1916 One Hundred English Folksongs that the words are "so corrupt, indeed, that in some cases we can do little more than guess at their original meaning".

The song's origins and age are uncertain: however, a counting song with similar lyrics, but without the 'Green grow the rushes' chorus, was sung by English children in the first half of the 19th century. By 1868 several variant and somewhat garbled versions were being sung by street children as Christmas carols. Sharp states that the song was very common in Somerset and the whole of the West of England.

"Green grow the rushes, Ho" (or "O"), the chorus, is not included in Sharp's version, which has simply the call and refrain "Come and I will sing to you. What will you sing to me? I will sing you one-er-y. What is your one-er-y? One is One ..." However, Sharp records that "a form of this song, 'Green grow the rushes, O' is known at Eton", that it was printed in English County Songs, and that Arthur Sullivan had included a version in the Savoy opera The Yeomen of the Guard.

Variants

Apart from the Notes and Queries and the Hebrew versions already mentioned, the following variants are known.

The Twelve Apostles

A variant, sung in the American Ozarks, is entitled The Twelve Apostles. Its twelfth, cumulated, verse, is:

Come an' I will sing!

What will you sing?

I will sing of twelve.

What of the twelve?

Twelve of the twelve apostles,

Leven of the saints that has gone to Heaven,

Ten of the ten commandments,

Nine of the sunshines bright an' fair,

Eight of the eight archangels,

Seven of the seven stars in the sky,

Six of the cheerful waiters,

Five of the ferrymen in the boat,

Four of the gospel preachers,

Three of them were strangers,

Two of the little white babes

Dressed in the mournin' green.

The Dilly Song

A similar variant is found in Winston Graham's The Twisted Sword, the penultimate book in the Poldark series. It is sung by a Cornish choir on Christmas Eve.

English folksinger Kate Rusby recorded a rendition of "The Dilly Carol" for her 2015 Christmas album The Frost is All Over.

Come and I will sing you

What will you sing O?

I will sing One O.

What is your One O?

Twelve are the Twelve Apostles

Leven are the 'leven will go to Heaven

Ten are the Ten Commandments

Nine is the moonshine bright and clear

Eight are the Eight Archangels

Seven are the Seven Stars in the sky

Six the Cheerful Waiter

Five is the Ferryman in the boat

Four are the Gospel Praychers

Three of them are strangers

Two of them are Lilly-white babes

Clothed all in green-o

One of them is all alone and ever shall remain so.

Alternative titles

• I'll Sing You One Oh
• The Carol of the Twelve Numbers
• The Twelve Apostles
• The Dilly Song
• The Dilly Carol
• The Counting Song
• Come and I Will Sing You
• Stay and I’ll Sing

Related works

• A medical version of the song is featured in the TV Sitcom "Doctor in the House" episode "Keep it Clean" and is sung by students Michael Upton, Duncan Waring, Paul Collier, Dave Briddock, and Huw Evans in the student union bar.
• The spiritual "Children, Go Where I Send Thee" has a similar format, counting down from ten or twelve biblical references.
• "Echad Mi Yodea" ("Who Knows One?"), a Hebrew song sung at the end of the Jewish Passover seder, has a very similar structure, counting up to thirteen using biblical and religious references.
• The song "The Ten Commandments", on Figgy Duff's album After The Tempest is a variant, omitting the last two symbols.
• A filk song titled "High Fly the Nazgul-O!" uses the same tune but the lyrics have been changed to refer to The Lord of the Rings.
• The comedy character Rambling Syd Rumpo sang a parody called "Green Grow My Nadgers, O" on the Round the Horne radio comedy programme.
• In the Gilbert & Sullivan opera The Yeomen of the Guard, the duet "I Have a Song to Sing, O" was inspired by a variant of this song, beginning "Come, and I will sing you".
• In The Children of Green Knowe, by Lucy M. Boston, Tolly sings the first two verses of the song.
• In the "Too Many Christmas Trees" episode of the 1960s U.K. TV series The Avengers, Steed sings the first two verses of this song to avoid having his mind influenced by his adversaries with psychic powers.
• The Society for Creative Anachronism kingdom of Ealdormere has a filk version of the song, using the tune and the count-down format; the final line is "And one for the land of Ealdormere that ever more shall be so".
• The Two Ronnies performed a satirical version as members of a Russian Choir. "Green" was changed to "Red". Memorable lyrics included: "Six for the Common Market / Five pence a mile to drive your car / And four pounds just to park it / Three P for a rotten cup of tea / Tu-tu for women's lib / Now they've burned their bras - O! / One is one, and all alone, and that is Greta Garbo".
• The song was very popular at holiday camps up until about the 1970s, where campers would perform actions whilst enthusiastically singing along to each verse. In this version the lyrics to verse 2 were completely changed to "two, two, the same to you; how's your father? he's alright". The only other deviation from the standard lyrics was in verse 5 where "symbols" was replaced with "cymbals" to which campers would bang drink trays together to mimic cymbals.
• "Red Fly the Banners, O" is a Marxist-Leninist version of the song.
• There is a reference to "the lily-white boy" in W. H. Auden's poem "As I Walked Out One Evening".
• The song is referred to in the famous Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian, specifically on pg 271 of Post Captain.
• Twelve of Anthea Fraser's novels featuring fictional detective David Webb reference lines of the song.
• The song is sung by Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols preceding her death in Alan Moore's From Hell. Though there is no record of Nichols knowing the song or being known to sing it, Moore admits in his annotations that he included the song to tie into the book's theme of the pagan symbolism of Britain - as well as it being a song likely to be sung by a citizen of London in the 1800s.
• A variation of this song using nature references and extending only from one to five is performed by an animated turtle in children's TV show Sesame Street.
• Jilly Cooper's novel Rivals references the song several times: the three companies are described as the "three rivals" and lines from the song are sung by characters.
• The Canadian folk rock band Great Big Sea recorded a version titled "Come and I Will Sing You" on their 2005 album The Hard and the Easy.
• Terry Pratchett's novel Hogfather features two brothers that share the last name "Lilywhite"; the book also contains a fictional holiday carol "The Lilywhite Boys".
• The American band R.E.M. wrote a song named "Green Grow the Rushes" that was released in 1985 on their album Fables of the Reconstruction.
• Australian writer Garth Nix's Old Kingdom book series incorporates a version of the song, as well as the idea of Nine Bright Shiners, into its cosmology.
• The song is referenced in Shirley Jackson's novel Hangsaman.

Settings and recordings

• Set by Benjamin Britten (as The Twelve Apostles) in 1962 for the London Boy Singers.
• There is a recording by Philip Langridge and the Wenhaston Boys Choir on #13 from the Naxos English Song Series (8.557222 - originally released on Collins Classics)
• A version was recorded by King Solomon's Singers, a vocal ensemble dedicated to the performance of Renaissance polyphony and chant.