(I'm baaaaaaaaack, @jessamynorchard...)
This post has been coming this way for nine centuries or four centuries, depending on who you ask, and coming this way to Hive for two entire weeks, all at the same time … through multiple countries and continents, out of the mouths of generations of people, and through two different languages … it's been traveling.
Let me explain...
When people between in 1620 were asked about it, they said that “Fairest Lord Jesus” was a favorite song of the children who marched in the Children's Crusade in the 1100s, and so the hymn's tune got its name: the Crusader's Hymn. When you think about the lyrics – beautiful scenes of spring and woodlands and such, one could imagine the things that children might notice, traveling largely alone across Europe in the 12th century.
(Yep. You read that right. We don't have time to get into it here, but the Children's Crusade is one of the saddest stories of the Middle Ages. It is nice to think that the children might have given us the beginning of this gorgeous hymn and experienced something good on their journey... it would have been one of the few bright spots)
When people in the 1680s were asked about it, they still knew the story from the Children's Crusade, but they had heard it from the followers of reformer John Hus who were going through great persecution and used the song to encourage themselves in the years before Germany put an end to its religious wars with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which allowed Germany's Protestants and Catholics to finally achieve a measure of peace, and for the Moravian portion of Christianity to arise.
When people in the 1700s and 1800s were asked about it, they said they first heard it from the Moravians, who tended to be simple people living a simple but theologically DEEP Christian life even as they immigrated to different parts of the world (including the United States in large numbers, bringing their hymns with them).
Somebody in the Silesian countryside in Germany named Hoffman Fallersleben heard the country people one good day in 1842, singing this hymn together in a local church. He wrote it all down and added it to a collection of Silesian folk tunes … but meanwhile, folks in the United States already had this hymn translated into English! The first surviving translation was done by Richard Storrs Willis in 1819 of the first three verses, and a little later on, Joseph A. Seiss, of Moravian parentage in the United States, translated the fourth verse.
Behold the work of (something like) 900 years of love and devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ!
Fairest Lord Jesus!
Ruler of all nature!
O Thou of God and man the Son!
Thee will I cherish,
Thee will I honor,
Thou, my soul’s glory, joy, and crown!
Fair are the meadows
Fairer still the woodlands,
Robed in the blooming garb of spring;
Jesus is fairer,
Jesus is purer,
Who makes the woeful heart to sing!
Fair is the sunshine,
Fairer still the moonlight,
And all the twinkling starry host;
Jesus shines brighter,
Jesus shines purer,
Than all the angels heav’n can boast!
All fairest beauty,
Heavenly and earthly,
Wondrously, Jesus, is found in Thee;
None can be nearer,
Fairer, or dearer,
Than Thou my Savior art to me.
NOW, why this appears on May 31, 2020 here on Hive is an entirely different proposition … I haven't been making videos because of increasing technical difficulties … took me a few weeks to figure out what was going on and get back on track, so, there will be more music videos and other types of videos in the near future – meanwhile, enjoy this, and good Sunday to you!
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All that long way to HIVE. Wondering what the people back in the 17th century would say when they would've been told that some digital community like HIVE would emerge that would allow to bring this song to anybody in the whole wide world! Probably this would be seen as witchcraft or something like that :)
I dare you: click me!
Oh, wait until Christmas ... the time-traveling non-witchcraft will get even CRAZIER... and "The Love of God" that I posted two weeks ago beats this one for weirdness and length ... one of the verses was written on an insane asylum... hymns are wild and woolly and people just don't know ... but on Hive, they will be able to learn ... thanks for reading, AND I have accepted your community invite. I love stories and music together too!
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