Agincourt Carol

The Agincourt Carol (sometimes known as the Agincourt Song, the Agincourt Hymn, or by its chorus and central words, Deo gratias Anglia) is an English folk song written some time in the early 15th century. It recounts the 1415 Battle of Agincourt, in which the English army led by Henry V of England defeated that of the French Charles VI in what is now the Pas-de-Calais region of France.

Facsimile of the Agincourt Carol in the Trinity Carol Roll (Trinity MS O.3.58)
Facsimile of the Selden Carol Book version of the Agincourt Carol (15th century). Oxford, Bodleian Library, Manuscript Archives

The carol is one of thirteen on the Trinity Carol Roll, probably originating in East Anglia, that has been held in the Wren Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, since the 19th century.[1] The other primary source for the carol is the contemporaneous Selden Carol Book held by the Bodleian Library in Oxford.[2]

The carol is featured in Laurence Olivier's 1944 film Henry V.[3] The composer Ernest Farrar created his 1918 Heroic Elegy: For Soldiers on the basis of the Agincourt Carol.[4]

Lyrics
Deo gratias Anglia redde pro victoria!
[Give thanks, England, to God for victory!]
Owre Kynge went forth to Normandy
With grace and myght of chyvalry
Ther God for hym wrought mervelusly;
Wherefore Englonde may call and cry
Chorus
Deo gratias!
Deo gratias Anglia redde pro victoria!
He sette sege, forsothe to say,
To Harflu towne with ryal aray;
That toune he wan and made afray
That Fraunce shal rewe tyl domesday.
Chorus
Then went hym forth, owre king comely,
In Agincourt feld he faught manly;
Throw grace of God most marvelously,
He had both feld and victory.
Chorus
Ther lordys, erles and barone
Were slayne and taken and that full soon,
Ans summe were broght into Lundone
With joye and blisse and gret renone.
Chorus
Almighty God he keep owre kynge,
His people, and alle his well-wyllynge,
And give them grace wythoute endyng;
Then may we call and savely syng:
Chorus[5]

The pattern of a strophe (verse) sung in English followed by a burden (chorus) in Latin followed a structure typical of the religious carols of the period.[6]

The Agincourt Carol was recorded by The Young Tradition on Galleries,[7] (with both the Early Music Consort and Dave Swarbrick contributing), and by the Silly Sisters (band) (Maddy Prior and June Tabor) on their second album No More to the Dance.

References
  1. BBC Music, Christmas 2011
  2. Hayward, Paul. "The Agincourt Carol". Medieval Primary Sources—Genre, Rhetoric and Transmission, Department of History, Lancaster University. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
  3. "Soundtracks for "The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Battell Fought at Agincourt in France"". IMDb entry for "The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Battell Fought at Agincourt in France" (1944). Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2007-04-19.
  4. Andrew Achenbach Farrar Orchestral Works, review Gramophone Magazine July 1998
  5. "Der Hundertjährige Krieg: Der sogenannte "Agincourt Carol"". Abteilung für Mittelalterliche Geschichte der Universität Tübingen. Universität Tübingen. Archived from the original on 2007-06-12. Retrieved 2007-04-19.
  6. Roden, Timothy; Wright, Craig; Simms, Bryan (2010). Anthology for Music in Western Civilization. Vol. 1. Boston, MA: Schirmer. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-495-57274-9.
  7. Young, Rob (2011). Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 199. ISBN 978-0-86547-856-5.
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