The Huron Carol
  • Theo
    Posts: 50
    I'd like to know if Middleton's English text is a faithful translation of the original Huron text by Jean de Brebeuf. If so, I also want to know if the English translation is appropriate for use in the Catholic Church today. I'm not sure about the mention of hunters, the Child wrapped in rabbit skin, chiefs from afar bringing gifts of fox and beaver pelt, etc. I wonder if that's why the carol is not included in the major Catholic hymnals.
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,093
    It's a broad paraphrase, easily Google-able. Currently set to a tune based on a lovely French folk tune, with some modern alterations in some hymnals.

  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,782
    Carols were traditionally sung in secular settings, so many very good Carols are not found in Catholic Hymnals.
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,093
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znsKhhRSx5g

    The above, of course, represents a (lovely) European singing style, even though they are singing in the Wendat/Wyandot tongue, not the singing styles typical of indigenous peoples of the Americas.

    PS: if the concern is that the text involves a-historical details, we'd have to eliminate tons of Christmas carols that include details like winter, snow, rosy-cheeked babe,and all manner of European assumptions that didn't obtain in 1st century Judaea or Levant, et cet (no crowns for them Magi). We'd also eliminate all visual art that trafficked in the same. If the aural and visual sacred arts could incorporate European cultural contexts, there's nothing principled to bar the incorporation of those of indigenous peoples of the Americas that are not in conflict with the Faith.
    Thanked by 3CHGiffen M. Jackson Osborn Adam Wood
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    Liam, you have un-made my day!
    Do you really mean to suggest that Frosty wind didn't make moan?
    That earth didn't stand hard as iron and water like a stone?
    That there wasn't snow on snow?
    That it wasn't in the bleak mid-winter?
    (You can't be serious!!!)
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • ronkrisman
    Posts: 1,394
    A fine documentary:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhijYWNlL9A
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,093
    MJO

    That's right. And we should remove all illustrations of the Last Supper showing people sitting at chairs around a high table while we're at it, especially if Jesus is in the center! (Give credit where credit is due: da Vinci at least had them around three sides of a very ahistorical table, a table visually at the head of the other tables in the refectory itself, implying an extension of the image into the refectory space and action).

    To put the Huron Carol in historical context: it was penned before Bernini wrought his design for the Cathedra Petri in the apse of St Peter's Basilica, and only a few years after Urban VIII's edition (the third one, after 1570 and 1604, and last one before 1884) of the Tridentine Missal.
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen Felipe Gasper
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