(Translators: Gabriel Gillett, Gerard Manley Hopkins,
John MacLeod Campbell Crum, Rev. J. O'Connor, W.A. Pickard-Cambridge)
This medieval Christmas Latin hymn originates from 13th
century or 14th century Britain or France.It is thought to have some kind of
connection with the Church of Addle in Yorkshire, England, after it was
found in the 13th/14th century manuscript Sequentiale
and known to have been printed in Ireland around 1361 when it was published
in the Dublin Troper which was used for Mass.It has also been found in four
Marian poems written by the religious writer John Audeley and Geoffrey
Chaucer uses it as the Latin hymn that Nicholas of Oxford sings in Miller's
Tales.The song itself is
a version of "Hail Mary" in poetic form about the Anunciation and is
translated in its English medieval form to "Gabriel, From Heven King Was To
The Maide Sende".It is
thought that there may have been as many as 27 stanzas with each one
starting with the next letter of the alphabet in its original form, but
these have now been reduced to five in the version sung today.Being seen and heard in many guises
it has been used as the basis for "The Angel Gabriel" with the words added
by Sabine Baring-Gould, has been translated by Gabriel Gillett under the
name "Came the Archangel to the Maid", "Gabriel to May Came" by John
MacLeod Campbell Crum and another version under that name by W.E.
Pickard-Cambridge, "Gabriel To Mary Went" by Rev. J. O'Connor and under its
original name by Gerard Manley Hopkins.It also goes under the name "The Angel Gabriel
from God" and "Gabriel From Heaven King".
