I Like The Old Ones in anticlimatic

....be they Lovecraftian Gods, or Christmas carols.

This song has roots as early as the 8th century, and there is something about it relative to the story of Christmas that does it for me. I am after all a student of all things Lore; of the furthest glimpses into the furthest reaches of the past. And while the pagan traditions that are also part of what we have come to know as Christmas, like yule and solstice, are even older still- the period of time this song is set still feels old enough to be among that tier of distant past, while also being part of the Abrahamic story that would ultimately name the global holiday.

It’s set during the Babylonian exile of the Jews (current day Iraq), in a dark and solemn place, long before the birth of Christ (before some of those Jews would become the first Christians). In this dark and distant place, in the dark and distant past, these people yearned and longed for a promise made by God, that they likely wouldn’t live long enough to see fulfilled. It’s a song of hope in the dark, that only us- listening from the distant future- can realize was not in fact in vain.