In a lodge made of broken bark, high in the snowy northern woods, a helpless infant was born.  Mighty chiefs and hunters drew near, bringing him gifts of fox and beaver pelt.  And a choir of angels in the wintry heavens sang his praises.

Father Jean de Brebeuf, a French missionary who lived among the Huron in the early 1600s, thus relates his own vision of the story of Christmas.  Unusual for its time, the carol was composed for the Huron tongue and was passed down by the Huron people for one hundred years before it was translated into French, and later English.

With luminous beauty, Frances Tyrrell has now re-created the December sky of 1648, the Huron clothing and dwellings, and the tender figures of mother and child in this illustrated version of Brebeuf's lyrics.  Combining the spirit of Huron tradition with the wonder of the Christmas story, this carol can be remembered and loved for its universal message: Even in the darkest winter there is the promise of new birth.

From the dust jacket of the U.S. edition