Today, Ar Hyd y Nos is a topic that has gained indisputable relevance in modern society. From Ar Hyd y Nos people have debated its impact on our lives, its influence on different aspects of culture and its role in the evolution of technology. This phenomenon has sparked increasing interest in various fields, from politics and economics to psychology and medicine. In this article, we will explore the various facets of Ar Hyd y Nos and its importance in today's world, examining its impact on society and its potential to transform the way we think and act.
"Ar Hyd y Nos" (English: All Through the Night) is a Welshsong sung to a tune that was first recorded in Edward Jones' Musical and Poetical Relics of the Welsh Bards (1784). The most commonly sung Welsh lyrics were written by John Ceiriog Hughes (1832-1887), and have been translated into several languages, including English (most famously by Harold Boulton (1859–1935)) and Breton. One of the earliest English versions, to different Welsh lyrics by one John Jones, was by Thomas Oliphant in 1862.
The melody is also used in the hymns "Go My Children With My Blessing” (1983), “God That Madest Earth and Heaven” (1827) and "Father in your Love Enfold Us".
The song is highly popular with traditional Welsh male voice choirs, and is sung by them at festivals in Wales and around the world.
Singable English lyrics to the same tune were written by Sir Harold Boulton in 1884:
Sleep my child and peace attend thee,
All through the night
Guardian angels God will send thee,
All through the night
Soft the drowsy hours are creeping
Hill and vale in slumber sleeping,
I my loving vigil keeping
All through the night.
While the moon her watch is keeping
All through the night
While the weary world is sleeping
All through the night
O'er thy spirit gently stealing
Visions of delight revealing
Breathes a pure and holy feeling
All through the night.
Variations
There is evidence that the song has undergone the folk process to some degree, yielding several similar but modified versions. In one alternative version, the second verse is substituted with:
Angels watching ever round thee
All through the night
In thy slumbers close surround thee
All through the night
They will of all fears disarm thee,
No forebodings should alarm thee,
They will let no peril harm thee
All through the night.
Another alternative version features a more neutral, night song text:
Deep the silence 'round us spreading
all through the night.
Dark the path that we are treading
all through the night.
Still the coming day discerning
by the hope within us burning.
To the dawn our footsteps turning
all through the night.
Star of faith the dark adorning
all through the night.
Leads us fearless t'wards the morning
all through the night.
Though our hearts be wrapt in sorrow,
from the hope of dawn we borrow
promise of a glad tomorrow
all through the night.
Yet another alternative version of the second verse is as follows:
You my child a babe of wonder
All through the night
Dreams you dream can't break from thunder
All through the night
Through your dreams you're gently healing
Visions of delight revealing
Slumber time is so appealing
All through the night
A. G. Prys-Jones wrote a more literal but still singable and rhyming version:
The tune is also used in the hymn "For the Fruit of All Creation" by Fred Pratt Green. The first verse of Green's lyrics (used widely in the harvest season and at Thanksgiving) ends with these words: "For the plowing, sowing, reaping, silent growth while we are sleeping, / Future needs in earth's safekeeping, thanks be to God."
The chorus of Max Boyce's song "Hymns and Arias", frequently sung by fans of the Wales rugby union team, mentions "Ar Hyd y Nos": "And we were singing hymns and arias; 'Land of my Fathers', 'Ar hyd y nos'".
Alan Stivell sings the song in Breton, Welsh and English on his 23rd album Emerald.
In the 1949 British Ealing comedy film, A Run for Your Money, starring Donald Houston, the song is sung at the Amateur Night performance and also heard as a theme on the train journey home.
The TV movie A Child's Christmas in Wales features the family singing the song towards the end of the film, but in English.
In season 3 of the series Angel, the character Daniel Holtz is frequently heard singing the English version of this song.
In the episode "Thursday's Child" in season 5 of Road to Avonlea, Alec King (played by Cedric Smith) sings the English version of this song to his son Daniel. However, the lullaby applies to everyone else awake in the household, given the recent bout of tuberculosis in the youngest daughter, Cecily, which has thrown the family into crisis.
In Series Two, Episode 26 of Monty Python's Flying Circus, the first two lines of the Welsh version are heard as an opening to a sketch about Welsh coal miners.
In Season Three, Episode 14 of Shining Time Station, Stacy Forgets Her Name, Grace and Rex in the Jukebox Band sing the first section of their lullaby medley to help Stacy Jones who has lost her memory.
In season 2, episode 4 of the American television series The Alienist, nurse Libby Hatch is humming the melody as she is seen lying next to the Matron she just killed.
In video games
Chapter IV of the 2015 video game The Order: 1886 features the Sir Harold Boulton lyrics of the folk song on a collectible wax cylinder in the psychiatric ward of the Royal London Hospital.
Sheet music gallery
Page 1 Ar Hyd y Nos in Welsh Melodies for the Harp by John Thomas
Pages 2–3 Ar Hyd y Nos in Welsh Melodies for the Harp by John Thomas
Pages 4–5 Ar Hyd y Nos in Welsh Melodies for the Harp by John Thomas
Pages 6–7 Ar Hyd y Nos in Welsh Melodies for the Harp by John Thomas