Show Notes
To kick off the fourth season of “Hark! The stories behind our favorite Christmas carols” we’re embarking on an adventure to learn about an American-born carol that features some classic nativity characters—figures that, though very familiar to us, we know little about. It’s a Christmas song that begins on a plodding, somber note and erupts into a thrilling epiphany. We’re exploring “We Three Kings.”
To help us understand who the magi were—at least from the perspective of Matthew’s Gospel— host Maggi Van Dorn invites Eric Vanden Eykel, author of The Magi: Who They Are, How They’ve Been Remembered, and Why They Still Fascinate and Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Ferrum College.
The magi’s gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh have long been viewed as symbolic of Jesus’ kingship, divinity and humanity, but how were these two herbs used in antiquity? Maggi learns about their earliest uses from Emiliana Patrick, a fourth year doctoral student in Classical Chinese Medicine at Daoist Traditions College in Asheville, North Carolina.
To trace the star the magi followed, Maggi turns to the director of the Vatican’s observatory, Guy Consolmagno, S.J., a Jesuit brother. Finally, to better appreciate the musical genius of the carol’s composition, she speaks with ContraForce, a folk metal band known for their eclectic range of musical styles at contra dances, who specially created an instrumental rendition of “We Three Kings,”specially for “Hark!,” that is woven throughout the episode.
The music featured in this episode is courtesy of ContraForce, Michael Logozar, Cynthia Boener, Dante Bucci, the Lee siblings of the Seasons band, Jeff Black and Lotos Nile Music. Special thanks to Jim Bilodeau, our sound engineer, and Jonathan Reid Gealt for lending their vocal talent.
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More from Hark! The stories behind our favorite Christmas carols
“O Little Town of Bethlehem” has shaped how millions of English speakers imagine the Palestinian town where Jesus was born: a small place, still and peaceful, resting under the stars. The wars and struggles of recent decades invite us to question whether that image is true. And yet, “Bethlehem is still a very little town,” says Stephanie Saldaña, a writer and mother raising her family in this religiously and culturally diverse place. “It is a small place where everybody knows each other.”
Did you know that when a ewe rejects her newborn lamb, the shepherd has only hours to convince her to nurse it—or the lamb will die? This is the work of shepherds—staying awake through the night when lambs are being born, watching closely, ready to step in and save them. It gives new meaning to the good shepherd. In this episode, host Maggi Van Dorn travels to a farm in Herefordshire, near the Welsh border, to understand shepherding, and discovers why God might have chosen shepherds to be the first to hear the good news.
We often imagine angels as gentle and serene. But in Scripture they arrive in blinding light and overwhelming sound—so much so that their first words are almost always “Do not be afraid.” These are the messengers who burst into the night sky to meet a group of poor, worn-out shepherds—outsiders who become the first to hear the news of Christ’s birth.
Most Christmas carols celebrate the birth of Jesus. But not “The Coventry Carol,” the premiere episode of “Hark!” season five. This song centers on a biblical horror: the “massacre of the innocents,” King Herod’s order to kill all male babies two years old and under in Bethlehem. It’s a lullaby sung by mothers to children who may not survive the night.
On the final episode of Hark! this season, prepare yourselves for a wee bit of scandal because we’re looking at a tune that began as a bawdy love song and has long been associated with an evil monarch, but which, over the course of three centuries, finds its redemption as a Christmas carol. This is the story behind, “What Child Is This?”