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Hills of the North, rejoice!
Dec. 4th, 2011 09:08 pmHills of the North, rejoice;
( ??? )
I learned a very important lesson from this hymn: the right words are the ones that were in your school hymnbook, and any other words are dead wrong. And, with this particular hymn, the argument has been going on ever since the publication of the English Hymnal. That is nearly a century, and far too long to argue about anything. I have since given up angsting about the right words, and changing them, (well, apart from the switched verse in O Little Town of Bethlehem in Hymns Old and New, because what on earth is the point of doing that?) because life is too short, and nobody is ever going to be happy.
Anyway, I never actually sang Hills of the North at school, but I did sing it in church, and the version I know is the one I've quoted second - the English Hymnal one. Quite possibly there are more than these two versions; I've certainly come across mutant combinations of the two. I shall talk mainly about that one, therefore.
The structure is identical in both: a verse each for north, south, east and west, and then the whole world together. Similarly, the geographical features chosen to represent each quarter of the globe are the same - and certain ideas traditionally associated with those areas, for example, the east as the land of the rising sun. The emphasis varies, however; on the whole, the Ancient and Modern version is more gloomy and discontented, while the English Hymnal tends more towards joyous expectation. I prefer it - but then I would, wouldn't I?
All that aside, I've always been vaguely uncomfortable with the idea of universal conversion that this hymn seems to me to advocate. But then I love the last verse - in either version - with the crowds of people hurrying towards one central point. This is probably because pilgrimage is a fantastically important image in my life, while mission - at least not in the nineteenth century sense - feels embarrassing at best. We still had it at our wedding, though. It's not so much where you're coming from, as where you're going.
( ??? )
I learned a very important lesson from this hymn: the right words are the ones that were in your school hymnbook, and any other words are dead wrong. And, with this particular hymn, the argument has been going on ever since the publication of the English Hymnal. That is nearly a century, and far too long to argue about anything. I have since given up angsting about the right words, and changing them, (well, apart from the switched verse in O Little Town of Bethlehem in Hymns Old and New, because what on earth is the point of doing that?) because life is too short, and nobody is ever going to be happy.
Anyway, I never actually sang Hills of the North at school, but I did sing it in church, and the version I know is the one I've quoted second - the English Hymnal one. Quite possibly there are more than these two versions; I've certainly come across mutant combinations of the two. I shall talk mainly about that one, therefore.
The structure is identical in both: a verse each for north, south, east and west, and then the whole world together. Similarly, the geographical features chosen to represent each quarter of the globe are the same - and certain ideas traditionally associated with those areas, for example, the east as the land of the rising sun. The emphasis varies, however; on the whole, the Ancient and Modern version is more gloomy and discontented, while the English Hymnal tends more towards joyous expectation. I prefer it - but then I would, wouldn't I?
All that aside, I've always been vaguely uncomfortable with the idea of universal conversion that this hymn seems to me to advocate. But then I love the last verse - in either version - with the crowds of people hurrying towards one central point. This is probably because pilgrimage is a fantastically important image in my life, while mission - at least not in the nineteenth century sense - feels embarrassing at best. We still had it at our wedding, though. It's not so much where you're coming from, as where you're going.