Shepherds Arise

Be Not Afraid, often known simply as Shepherds Arise, is a Christmas carol first recorded in a 19th-century manuscript from the parish of Winterborne Zelston, Dorset, England.

[2] As the original manuscripts were destroyed during World War II Pickard-Cambridge's edition remains the oldest source of this text.

[2] A second version of the carol, with substantially different verses but including a repeated chorus, occurs in an early 19th-century manuscript from Puddletown now held in the Dorset Record Office.

[5] A composite arrangement by Woods, using elements of both the Winterborne Zelston and Puddletown versions, has often been used in modern revivals of the carol in Dorset.

The source of this version is unknown, but the Copper family were presumably aware of Pickard-Cambridge's earlier setting through the English Folk Song Society.