2013 Carol Round-Up: The Boar's Head Carol
Created | Updated Dec 1, 2013
Name your favourite Christmas carol.
The Boar's Head Carol
The boar's head, I understand
Is the rarest dish in all the land.
Which thus bedeck'd with a gay garland
Let us servire cantico1.
Caput apri defero,
Reddens laudes Domino!2
As everyone knows, Christmas has little or nothing to do with such a recent religion as Christianity. The Boar's Head Carol is a good example of this. Sacrificing boar in the winter goes back to those pagan Anglo-Saxons. And we shouldn't take the 'sacrifice' part too seriously. Any excuse would do for a bit of barbecue in mid-winter.
Another story about this carol is the one about the Oxford scholar who ran into a wild boar in the woods. Allegedly, he shoved a volume of Aristotle down its throat and choked the ravenous beast. The boar wouldn't have been the first to choke on Aristotle. Want the tune? Be our guest.
Oh, and that stuff's called 'macaronic verse'. It just means it's in two languages.
What's your favourite carol, pagan or otherwise? Want to share?
