I gravitated towards this song because it shines a sort of creepy light on Christmas, so I wanted to make a cover of it to kind of roll with that idea. I began carrying the lyrics around at the front of my head for the entirety of November.

Nothing is wrong, it’s what she did. All the king's horns raise the dead.

As these lines stirred around my head, I started to think about what I could remember from my upbringing about the birth of Jesus and how it compares to this story. The whole thing feels scary yet hopeful. A birth of an unexplained pregnancy, Kings following a star to find the chosen one, and a war between those who believed and those who didn’t. The dark nature of this song begins to feel more and more celebratory as it goes by- and that is a perfect metaphor for Christmas.

He came to raise up the dead

Throughout my overthinking of this song, I decided to look into comments and theories on Sufjan’s would-be hymn. There weren’t many, but one led down a long path; someone suggested that this song was a reference to the Massacre of the Innocents.

In the Gospel of Matthew (and literally nowhere else in the Bible), King Herod the Great ordered for every child under the age of two to be murdered in Bethlehem and the surrounding areas. Joseph intended on divorcing Mary quietly, as she had been impregnated by the Holy Spirit… not exactly an Emmy-award-winning sell. Nevertheless, an angel appeared to him in a dream and warned him to take Mary away from Bethlehem for the birth. The angel also told Joseph to name the baby Jesus, as he would save people from their sins.

King Herod called upon three wise men to follow a newly-risen star, brighter than the rest. The chosen one would be there, and they should bring him back. In a dream, much like Joseph’s, the Wisemen were told to not return to him. They would follow the star and find the baby, giving him three gifts: gold as a symbol of kingship on earth, frankincense (an incense) as a symbol of deity, and myrrh (an embalming oil) as a symbol of death. All the King’s horns and all the King’s men would be saddled and worn. Jesus would raise the dead.

The Catholic Church considers the children who were murdered in Jesus’ stead to be the first Christian Martyrs.

Most philosophers consider this whole story to be folklore. I agree.

I like it, though.