For all you grammar geeks out there, the answer is “both,” depending on the line in the song. It’s quite clever wording. In the first line “jingle” is an adjective, then, in the second line the bells are told to jingle, so the word is now an imperative verb. Isn’t that cool?
Perhaps the first question to be asked is, “what’s a jingle bell?” I’ll let good old Wikipedia answer this:
Bells of this type were developed centuries ago for fastening to harnesses used with horses or teams of horses. Typically they were used for horse-drawn vehicles, such as carriages and sleighs. The bell was designed to make a jingly sound whenever the horse and thus the vehicle was in motion. The purpose was perhaps to herald the approach of someone important, or likely to warn pedestrians of the vehicle’s approach so that they might step aside to avoid collisions and potential injuries. This was especially important for sleighs, which otherwise make almost no sound as they travel over packed snow, and are difficult to stop quickly. This instrument was also used for fun by children in games and songs.
While we’re at it, what about “bells on bob-tail ring”? Maybe you already know this, but horses’ tails were/are sometimes cut off, or “bobbed,” just as is sometimes done to dogs’ tails and/or ears. (Hey! What did that dog ever do to you? That’s what I want to know.) Anyway, apparently there used to be some (fairly) good reasons to bob, or “dock,” a farm horse’s tail, because as the farmer used the reins to guide the direction of the plow he could inadvertently get them caught under the horse’s tail, and there was also the danger of the long hair getting caught in machinery. It was considered easier just to cut the tail off, which involved an actual amputation of the bones leading down into the tail and not just cutting off the hair, since the hair would grow back. (The structure of the tail goes down quite a ways; that part is called the “dock,” hence the term. The hair is called the “skirt.”)
Okay. Enough with the horse anatomy. What about the writer of the song, James Lord Pierpont? Was he a devoted family man who enjoyed going on romantic sleigh rides with his wife? Alas, no. He was kind of a misanthrope, always running away from the familiar and showing very little family loyalty. He left his wife and children behind in Massachusetts to pursue riches in the California gold rush, returning home after several years with very little to show for his efforts. Then he left again, this time for Savannah, Georgia, to take the position of organist at his brother’s church. His family stayed behind, and when his wife died he didn’t bother to bring his children to live with him, leaving them to be raised by their grandfather. He did remarry, though, this time going with the mayor’s daughter. The debate on slavery was heating up, and his preacher brother was a fiery abolitionist, a viewpoint that did not endear him to his Southern congregation. So in 1859 his brother went back up North, but James stayed. When the Civil War broke out he joined the Confederate army, enlisting as the company clerk for a unit of the Georgia cavalry and writing several battle songs. All this while his own father was serving as a Union chaplain! I don’t know that Pierpont ever had any contact with his family again.
Apparently, though, some memories of his past had the power to inspire him. Maybe he had no desire to maintain any actual human ties, but he missed the winter activities in Massachusetts that weren’t available to him in Georgia, including the sleigh races popular in Medford, the town where he’d lived before high-tailing it off to California. I would love to know exactly what sparked his memories, but it’s fair to say that the song doesn’t actually have anything to do with warm holiday spirits. It isn’t a Christmas song at all, in fact. If you look closely at the words a much less innocent picture emerges, as it was often used as a drinking song at parties, with guests jingling the ice in their glasses as they sang. And sleigh rides were seen as somewhat . . . scandalous, as (especially if it were a “one-horse” sleigh with room for only two people) couples could go off into the distant woods or meadows unchaperoned. I’ve posted the full lyrics of the original version below the videos with some additional commentary. Some of the words seem rather mean-spirited to me; take a look and see what you think.
I can’t stop here, though, because there’s a lovely scene in These Happy Golden Years, the next-to-last book in the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, that includes the song. Laura has gotten to know Almanzo Wilder, a nice young man in her town, and he’s been showing an interest in her, but she’s decided, for no good reason, that she’s not going to encourage him. So he stays away for awhile, waiting until Laura is good and bored sitting at home with her crocheting while the young people of the town are out sleighriding. Then he shows up, and Laura is so thrilled to be included that she immediately accepts his invitation. As they drive away Almanzo compliments her on her blue eyes, and she suddenly laughs.
“What’s so funny?” Almanzo asked, smiling.
“It’s a joke on me,” Laura said. “I didn’t intend to go with you any more but I forgot. Why did you come?”
“I thought maybe you’d change your mind after you watched the crowd go by,” Alonzo answered. Then they laughed together.
Theirs was one of a line of sleighs and cutters, swiftly going the length of Main Street, swinging in a circle on the prairie to the south, then speeding up Main Street and around in a circle to the north, and back again, and again. Far and wide the sunshine sparkled on the snowy land; the wind blew cold against their faces. The sleigh bells were ringing, the sleigh runners were squeaking on the hard-packed snow, and Laura was so happy that she had to sing:
Jingle bells, jingle bells,
Jingle all the way!
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh!
Since Laura Ingalls Wilder seems to have sneaked into this post, I’ll tell you that the next time you’re anywhere near Mansfield, Missouri you should be sure to visit Rocky Ridge Farm, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum and Farm. What an utterly charming place! (Even the tornado watch was charming; we ended up sitting in a “safe room” for about 45 minutes with a group of friendly people.) Probably helps if you’re a LIW groupie, but my husband and son enjoyed it too. Laura and Almanzo certainly didn’t have an easy life, but they had a good one. Almanzo knew what he was doing when he carefully plotted his strategy to win Laura’s heart.
Back to “Jingle Bells.” First off I’ll give you what is labeled as the original version that Pierpont wrote. It has a lovely Victorian flavor, a somewhat different melody, and yet another verse that’s not ever included in performances today. I don’t know anything about the group performing it, but they’re great. (Sorry it’s not a performance video.)
Here’s the classic “Jingle Bell Rock,” with the original animation (which doesn’t have much to do with the song, as there’s no horse)–
And, well, just because–here are the Minions doing their version:
These are the original lyrics as taken from the first video posted above:
Dashing through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh,
O’ver the fields we go, laughing all the way.
Bells on bob-tail ring, making spirits bright,
Oh what sport to ride and sing a sleighing song tonight.
Chorus:
Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Oh what joy it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh. (repeat)
A day or two ago, I thought I’d take a ride,
And soon Miss Fanny Bright was seated by my side.
The horse was lean and lank, misfortune seemed his lot,
He got into a drifted bank and we, we got upsot.
(So was the “Miss Fanny Bright” in this verse no better than she should be, in the parlance of the day? It would be fun to know if Pierpont was thinking of a particular girl when he wrote the line, but her identity, if indeed she existed, is lost to history. “Upsot” is just a humorous version of “upset,” used to rhyme with “his lot,” but Pierpont may also have worked in the “sot” part because of its relationship to drunkenness.)
Chorus
A day or two ago, the story I must tell,
I went out on the snow and on my back I fell.
A gent was riding by in a one-horse open sleigh,
He laughed as I there sprawling lay but quickly drove away.
(Well! One could say about that supposed “gent,” in the words of my then-toddler son, “he not nice.”)
Chorus
The overall spirit of the song is well summed up in the final verse, one that’s usually cut:
Now the ground is white. Go it while you’re young,
Take the girls to night and sing this sleighing song;
Just get a bob tailed bay , two forty as his speed.*
Hitch him to an open sleigh and crack, you’ll take the lead.
Fast cars and fast women! Some things never change.
”Two forty refers to a mile in two minutes and forty seconds at the trot, or 22.5 miles per hour. This is a good speed.” (Wikipedia)
© Debi Simons
