“Away in a manger” has long been one of the most popular American Christmas carols. But even today, nearly one hundred and thirty-eight years after its earliest known publication, the origin of the text remains a mystery.
Its use among the Latter-day Saints dates back to the early twentieth century when it was included in Deseret Sunday School Songs (1909) with a musical setting composed by prolific hymnist Charles H. Gabriel. Later children’s song books gave both Gabriel’s tune and the more widely-used setting by James R. Murray. “Away in a Manger” remains in the most recent children’s songbook, but with only Gabriel’s tune. Both text and tune in this collection are labeled “anonymous.” [1]
“Away in a Manger” entered the official Latter-day Saint hymnal in 1985, paired with CRADLE SONG, a tune composed by William J. Kirkpatrick, in an arrangement borrowed from the Hymns of the Saints, the hymnal used by the Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) from 1981 to 2013. In the 1985 Latter-day Saint hymnal the music for “Away in a Manger” is credited to “William J. Kirkpatrick, 1838-1921; harmonized by Rosalee [Smith] Elser, b. 1925” and the text is listed as: “Anon., ca. 1883, Philadelphia.” [2]
The likely source for this textual attribution is a 1945 article titled “Not So Far Away in a Manger,” written by Richard S. Hill, then head of the Reference Section of the Music Division at the Library of Congress, and published in the Music Library Association Notes. [3] In his article, Hill sought to clear up the confusion that then surrounded the authorship of “Away in a Manger.” He searched through the vast holdings of the Library of Congress and traced the publication history of the famous Christmas carol. The earliest printing of the text found by Hill was 1885 in Little Children’s Book: for Schools and Families, published in Philadelphia by the General Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North America. In this collection “Away in a Manger” consisted of two stanzas only, accompanied by a tune composed by J. E. Clark. [4] The third stanza was not written until a few years later, and likely originated in Charles Gabriel’s hymn collection titled Gabriel’s Vineyard Songs (1892).[5]
Hill speculated that the text was probably originally written for a children’s play or story for children concerning the life of religious reformer Martin Luther. “If anyone should find such a story or play containing the words of ‘Away in a manger’ written between the outer limits of 1880 and Christmas of 1884,” wrote Hill, “but more probably in 1883, during the 400th Anniversary of Luther’s birth, he will almost certainly have discovered the first edition of this very elusive poem.” [6] Thus, the attribution in the Latter-day Saint hymnal.
At the time of his death in 1961, Hill’s article was considered by some to be about a “relatively minor matter.” [7] But his influence was far-reaching. Before the publication of his article, the text was nearly always attributed to Martin Luther in song collections. But today, largely as a consequence of Hill’s research, hymn scholars almost universally agree that Luther did not write “Away in a Manger.”
Hill created a hypothesis concerning the origin of the text “which fits all the known facts, and shapes them into a perfectly logical pattern.” [8] He argued that “although [Martin] Luther himself had nothing to do with the carol, the colonies of German Lutherans in Pennsylvania almost certainly did.” [9] But Hill’s argument is based on the earliest printing of the hymn he was able to find, which at the time was the Little Children’s Book, published in Philadelphia in 1885. Hill believed that because Luther’s name was not listed in connection with “Away in a Manger” in this earlier collection, but Luther was later listed as its author in James R. Murray’s Dainty Songs for Little Lads and Lasses (1887) and in nearly every collection that followed, that the attribution of this hymn to Luther originated with Murray. Hill speculated that the editors of these two collections likely found the text in the same source, but “one set of editors could see that [Luther] had not written the poem (possibly because they knew more about Luther), whereas the second editor [Murray] got the impression that the poem was written by Luther for his children and that it was well known in Germany.” [10] This was the reason Hill believed “Away in a Manger” might have originated in a play: “If the source was quasi-ficitional—a little play for children to act or a story about Luther celebrating Christmas with his children—one man might have appreciated that the poem was written by an author of the playlet or story for dramatic effect, whereas the other man might take it as pure history.”[11] Hill concluded that because the Little Children’s Book had been published by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Philadelphia, the writer of the text must have been a German Lutheran from Philadelphia.
In recent years, however, the text has been found in several sources prior to 1885, and in locations other than Philadelphia. According to Wikipedia, the first known printing of “Away in a Manger” occurs in the March 2, 1882 edition of the anti-masonic newspaper, the Christian Cynosure, published at Chicago, Illinois. [12]
But an even earlier printing of the text is found in the Congregationalist, a religious newspaper published at Boston, Massachusetts. Under the date January 4, 1882, in the “Children’s Department” on page six, appears the following:
……..LUTHER’S CRADLE SONG.
[The following hymn composed by Martin Luther for his children is still sung by many of the German mothers to their little ones.]
……..Away in a manger,
…………No crib for His bed,
……..The little Lord Jesus
…………Lay down His sweet head.
……..The stars in the sky
…………Looked down where He lay,
……..The little Lord Jesus,
…………Asleep in the hay.
……..The cattle are lowing,
…………The poor baby wakes,
……..But little Lord Jesus,
…………No crying He makes.
……..I love thee, Lord Jesus,
…………Look down from the sky,
……..And stay by my crib,
…………Watching my lullaby.
This January 4, 1882 publication date, only ten days after Christmas, suggests “Away in a Manger” was likely borrowed by the Congregationalist from an even earlier source, one that may have been published sometime around Christmas 1881.
Other early appearances of the text (all before the publication of the Little Children’s Book in 1885) include:
* Sailor’s Magazine and Seamen’s Friend (New York), November 1883 (“Luther’s Cradle Song”), p. 351
* Cottage Hearth (Boston), February 1884 (“Luther’s Cradle Hymn”), p. 59
* Myrtle (Boston), May 3, 1884 (“Luther’s Cradle Song”), p. 6
* San Francisco Evening Bulletin (Supplement), October 11, 1884 (“Luther’s Cradle Hymn,” reprinted from the Cottage Hearth)
In each of these early printings of the text the poem is titled either “Luther’s Cradle Song” or “Luther’s Cradle Hymn,” and the words are prefaced by a brief note similar to that found in the Congregationalist, which stated that the words were composed by Martin Luther for his children and still sung by German mothers to their little ones. These sources, published before the earliest appearance found by Hill, suggest that perhaps this hymn was, in fact, based on Luther after all. In his article concerning “Away in a Manger,” Hill mentions one well-known hymn written by Luther which is claimed to have been written for his little son Hans: “Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her” (translated into English by Catherine Winkworth as “From Heaven Above to Earth I Come.”) Hill, however, dismisses the idea that this hymn could have been the basis for “Away in a Manger”: “Now, it would be the grossest nonsense to suppose that the two simple stanzas of ‘Away in a manger’ are a translation—or even a paraphrase—of the fifteen stanzas of Luther’s great hymn,” he argues. “Naturally, one could hardly describe a baby lying in a manger, surrounded by cattle, without making use of a few similar words and expressions.” [13] But Hill does not quote any of Winkworth’s (or anyone else’s) translation, only stating: “‘Von Himmel hoch’ may be found in so many Christmas collections that it hardly seems necessary to reprint its fifteen stanzas here, even if more space were available.” [14] Perhaps Hill felt that quoting Luther’s hymn might undermine his own argument. The following are the most relevant stanzas from Winkworth’s translation of “Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her”:
5. These are the tokens ye shall mark,
The swaddling clothes and manger dark;
There shall ye find the young child laid,
By whom the heavens and earth were made
7.Give heed, my heart, lift up thine eyes!
Who is it in yon manger lies?
Who is this child so young and fair?
The blessed Christ-child lieth there.
9. Ah, Lord, who hast created all,
How hast Thou made Thee weak and small,
That Thou must choose Thy infant bed
Where ass and ox but lately fed!
10. Were earth a thousand times as fair,
Beset with gold and jewels rare,
She yet were far too poor to be
A narrow cradle, Lord, for Thee.
13.Ah! dearest Jesus, Holy Child,
Make Thee a bed, soft, undefiled,
Within my heart, that it may be
A quiet chamber kept for Thee.
14.My heart for very joy doth leap,
My lips no more can silence keep;
I too must sing with joyful tongue
That sweetest ancient cradle-song. [15]
Clearly, “Away in a Manger” is not a direct translation of Luther’s words. However, the similar words and phrases found in the above stanzas indicate “Away in a Manger” could very well have been inspired by Luther’s hymn. Whether or not this is the case, it is impossible to say with any certainty. Hopefully future searches through nineteenth century newspapers and literary journals will uncover additional, heretofore unknown, printings of this Christmas carol that will provide further clues to its origins.
Notes:
[1] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Children’s Songbook of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1989), 42-43.
[2] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Hymns of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1985), no. 206.
[3] Richard S. Hill, “Not So Far Away in a Manger; Forty-one Settings of an American Carol,” Notes 3, no. 1 (December 1945): 12-36. Hill discovered forty-one different musical settings for “Away in a Manger,” and identified the most widely published tunes accompanying this text, or the “four major settings,” as MUELLER by James R. Murray (first published in Dainty Songs for Little Lads and Lasses [1887]); CRADLE SONG by William J. Kirkpatrick (first published in Around the World With Christmas. A Christmas Exercise [1895]); FLOW GENTLY SWEET AFTON by Jonathan Edwards Stillman (first published in 1838 by Philadelphia music publisher George Willig); and LUTHER’S CRADLE HYMN by John Bunyan Herbert (first published in The Joyful Story. A New Christmas Entertainment for Sunday Schools [1891]). According to Hill, Herbert’s tune began to gain popularity in the 1930s, rivaling MUELLER as the most published musical setting of “Away in a Manger.” Today, however, Herbert’s tune is not as well-known as the other three major settings of “Away in a Manger.”
[4] Hill, 20-21.
[5] Hill, 29. I have not yet seen Gabriel’s tune for “Away in a Manger” from Gabriel’s Vineyard Songs (1892), and therefore am unable to say whether or not it is the same tune used by the Latter-day Saints in the current children’s songbook. Gabriel composed a different tune for “Away in a Manger” which he included one year later in his collection Little Branches (1893). This tune is copyrighted 1893, so is likely not the same tune published by Gabriel the year prior. The Gabriel tune found in the Latter-day Saint children’s songbook appears as early as 1900 in E. O. Excell’s Make His Praise Glorious buts bears an 1896 copyright, suggesting it was first published sometime around that date.
[6] Hill, 22-23.
[7] Charles Warren Fox, “Richard S. Hill: A Reminiscence,” Notes 18, No. 3 (Jun., 1961): 369-380.
[8] Hill, 22.
[9] Hill, 15.
[10] Hill, 22.
[11] Hill, 22.
[12] “Away in a Manger,” Wikipedia, last modified December 19, 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Away_in_a_Manger
[13] Hill, 19.
[14] Hill, 19.
[15] Catherine Winkworth, Lyra Germanica (London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1855), 12. The following note appears at the end of this hymn: “Written for his [Luther’s] little son Hans. 1540.”
Latter-day Saint Hymnology 