Tags
Adalbert, awks skull carrying guys, Boleslav the Cruel, Christmas carols, Czech stuff, Good King Wenceslas, hagiography, illuminated manuscript, Merry Christmas, Spring carols, Strachkvas, Tempus adest floridum, Wenceslas
Good King Wenceslas is probably one of my favourite Christmas songs. St. Wenceslas is the patron saint of the Czech Republic, and was sainted mostly because of hagiographic reasons (allegedly) and because his brother who assassinated him was called Boleslav the Cruel. I mean the deck’s pretty stacked. Also he was posthumously declared a king because of his princely vigour and all that jazz. The most interesting part about the song itself is that the tune was cribbed from a 13th century spring carol called Tempus adest floridum, taken from a 16th century Finnish manuscript of carols and songs. Also some critiques of it stem from this, as it is technically an Easter song and apparently the lyrics of GKW (yeah I shortened it cos I can’t spell Wenceslas very well) are a bit… well.. a bit of a downer. An interesting comparison is on Wikipedia (where I cribbed a lot of this from).
Also an awkward moment: Boleslav’s son was born on the same day and was named Strachkvas (“a dreadful feast”) because of it. Also he almost became Bishop of Prague, didn’t want to, even though a Saint was all like “but you have influence and episcopacy-ishness,” and then Adalbert, the saint, and his family were massacred, so then Strachkvas, who also went by Kristian (sensible), had to… but then he died during his consecration. Super awks, guys.
Also he has another song, which is one of the oldest known Czech songs (~mid 13th century):
Anyways. Merry Christmas to all!
Emily