Cecilia Margaret Rudin

In recent years, many denominations have started to publish commentaries on their hymnals -- histories of the songs, with background on authorship, sources, significance, and purpose. These books can be tremendously useful to a church worker, and also, sometimes, to an historian.

If they're right.

This book precedes most of those commentaries, and is non-denominational; give it credit for helping start a trend. It takes a relative handful of widely popular songs and gives their... er....

I have to say "er," because it's not really history. History is something that actually happened, and this book is much too credulous. Any old story that sounds good was accepted -- on page 6, for instance, Rudin talks about Martin Luther wandering around medieval Germany singing "Away in a Manger." In English, no doubt, because it's an American song -- the only known German version was created, probably in the 1930s, for a Pennsylvania Dutch church! Few of her other errors are that egregious, but they are many. If you want folklore about famous hymns, this is a good book, but if you want actual facts, run, don't walk, away from this.

And, on top of all that, the book really is awfully pwecious. There were some passages that I truly found cringe-worthy. Of course, your tolerance may vary. But with so many more reliable sources now available, I can't see why anyone would want this book any more.… (more)