On the final episode of Hark! this season, prepare yourselves for a wee bit of scandal because we’re looking at a tune that began as a bawdy love song and has long been associated with an evil monarch, but which, over the course of three centuries, finds its redemption as a Christmas carol. This is the story behind, “What Child Is This?”

Discover how a 4th-century poem by Aurelius Clemens Prudentius to respond to Christian heresies evolved into “Of the Father’s Love Begotten” by the 19th century.

On this episode of “Hark!”, we follow a figure the Bible never mentions, but whose bold gift leads us straight to the heart of Christmas. This is the story of “The Little Drummer Boy.”

To kick off the fourth season of “Hark! The stories behind our favorite Christmas carols,” we have a Christmas song that begins on a plodding, somber note and erupts into a thrilling epiphany. We’re exploring “We Three Kings.”