Inside: Part lullaby, part hymn, this beloved American Christmas carol takes place far away in a barn.

Away in a Barn

Or, as you’ve probably guessed, “Away in a Manger” is the song. Though mistakenly thought to be composed by Martin Luther thanks to the writings of James R. Murray dated 1887–he called it “Luther’s Cradle Hymn”–it is wholly American.

Methodist hymnologist Fred Gealy suggests the hymn originated among German Lutherans in Pennsylvania about 1885, as the first two stanzas appeared in Little Children’s Book for Schools and Families, a Sunday school collection published that same year by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North America.

The addition of the third stanza to “Away in a Manger” found its way into Gabriel’s Vineyard Songs in 1892, though the writer remains a mystery. Gealy supposed that an editor or publisher thought the two narrative stanzas should have a prayer to finish out the song.

Speaking personally, the song to me has always been a favorite because of growing up on a farm. I remember one particular Christmas Eve night, finishing up around the farm, the cows bedded down in the barn, the clear still night, sky filled with stars. That night in the manger so many, many years ago seemed even more real to me in the quiet barn filled with dairy cows.

I have often wondered if Mary thought that carrying the Savior of the World meant giving birth in a palace–or at least a really nice inn. I doubt she saw herself in the back of a barn, animals looking on, shepherds stopping by to worship. But so many people love the nativity scene, and children relate well to animals and a little baby in a hay box. Myself included.

Here is a lovely rendition by Andy Griffith and Eleanor Donahue, which has a wonderful unplugged quality to it that I love.

Away in a Manger