O Tannenbaum the faithless maiden of the folk song. This was changed to ' (green) at some point in the 20th century, after the song had come to be associated with Christmas. The tune is an old folk tune attested in the 16th century. It is also known as the tune of "" and of "". Below is the tune with the original German lyrics of the first verse: <score vorbis="1"> » </score> The tune has also been used (as a contrafactum) to carry other texts on many occasions. Some notable uses include: O Tannenbaum "" (; "O fir tree", English: "O
Elhanan Tannenbaum and is considered a wanted fugitive by the Israeli government. Tannenbaum was released in January 2004 as part of a prisoner swap with Hezbollah. The swap, mediated by Germany, resulted in the exchange of 435 prisoners held by Israel in return for Tannenbaum's release and the return of the bodies of three soldiers killed during an ambush along the Israeli-Lebanese border. Among the 435 people released were Mustafa Dirani and Abdel Karim Obeid. These two individuals were kidnapped, in 1994 and 1989 respectively, for use as bargaining chips in the effort to secure the release of the most famous of